SWEDISH  PHONOLOGY 


BiT 


A.  LOUIS  ELMQUiST 

Northwestern  University 


CHICAGO 
THE  ENGBERG-HOLMBERG  PUBLISHING  CO. 

1915 


\ 


Copyright,    191.S,  by 
A.   Louis  Elmquist 


H  ,.■■'      .  -*'    *- 

PRJl^ACR. 

In  this  little  volume  I  have  made  no  attempt  to 
treat  any  part  of  the  subject  exhaustively,  nor  is 
the  book  intended  primarily  as  a  work  of  reference. 
My  purpose  has  been  merely  to  give  as  much  as 
the  student  of  Swedish  ought  to  know  about  Swed- 
ish pronunciation.  Particularly  Swedish-Americans, 
who  have  comparatively  little  difficulty  with  the 
sounds  themselves,  can  profit  much  by  a  systematic 
study  of  the  subject. 

The  book,  then,  is  intended  as  a  text-book  to 
accompany  and  to  supplement  the  study  of  the  gram- 
mar. In  my  Swedish  Grammar  I  have  referred 
freely  to  the  Phonology.  As  the  pronunciation  of 
a  modern  language  is  clearly  of  basic  importance 
for  any  knowledge  of  the  language,  it  is  my  hope 
that  the  Phonology  will  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
student  of  Swedish  grammar,  and  that  it  will  be  re- 
ferred to  freely  from  the  very  beginning. 

I  have  everywhere  avoided  treating  the  subject 
historically,  my  main  object  being  to  give  only 
what  would  be  of  practical  value  to  the  student. 
I  have  touched  only  rarely,  and  in  an  elementary 
way,  upon  matters  phonetic.  Except  for  an  account 
of  the  leading  differences  between  the  present  and 
older  stages  of  orthography,  I  have  treated  ortho- 
graphic matters  very  sparingly.  A  full  treatment  of 
Swedish  orthography  is  given  in  Jules  Mauritzson's 
"Svensk  Rattskrivningslara"    (Rock  Island,    1908). 

A.  LOUIS  ELMQUIST. 
Evanston,  Illinois, 
August,   191  j. 


CONTENTS. 

!   A      lv 

THE   ALPHABET   

STRESS / 

ACCENT  (acute  And  grave) i' 

Compared  with  English,  §  3. 

Accent,  a  combination  of  tone  and   stress,  §    ; 

Nature  of  the  acute  accent,  §  5. 

Nature  of  the  grave  accent,  §  6. 

Summary,  §  7. 

Compound  words,  §  8. 

Words  not  stressed  on  the  first  syllable,  §  9. 

How  to  learn  the  grave  accent,  §  10. 

Rules  for  determining  which  words  of  more  tban  one 
syllable  have  the  acute  accent,  §11. 

Accent  and  sentence-stress,  §  12. 

Uniformity  of  accent  in  Sweden,  §13. 
QUANTITY 21 

Quantity  rules,  §  14. 

Consonant-length,  §  15. 

Quantity  and  sentence-stress,  §  16. 

Orthographic  indication  of  length  of  sound,  §  17. 

Concerning  orthography  of  m  and  n,  §  iS. 
VOWELS 2S 

The  individual  vowels,  §§  19-27. 

Orthographic  representation  of  the  sound  of  a  a::d  d, 
§  28. 

Relation  of  quality  to  quantity,  §  29. 

Relation  of  quality  to  sentence-quantity,  §  30. 

Hard  and  soft  vowels,  §31. 

Vowel-modification,  §  32. 

Liit  of  nouns  modifying  the  vowel  in  the  plural,  §  33. 
DIPHTHONGS .7 


CONSONANTS 38 

Swedish    consonants    differing  in  sound  from  the  cor- 
responding English  consonants,  §  36. 

Voiced  and  voiceless  consonants,  §  37. 

Assimilation,  §  38. 

The  individual  consonants,  §§  39-5s- 

Summaries  relating  to  the  consonants,  §  59. 
UNIFORMITY  OF  PRONUNCIATION 57 

No  rigid  norm  of  pronunciation,  §  60. 

A  and  o     before  r,  §  61. 

E  anrl  a,  §  62. 

A'.  §  65. 

TJ,  §  64. 

SJ,  §  65. 

L,  §  66. 
NAMES  OF  THE  LETTERS  OF  THE  ALPHABET.    ...   61 
ORTHOGRAPHY  (present  form  compared  with  older)...   61 


SWEDISH  PHONOLOGY. 


THE  ALPHABET. 

1.  The  Swedish  alphabet  is  the  same  as  the 
English  alphabet,  with  the  addition  of  the  three 
vowel-characters  a,  a,  and  b  (A,  A,  O)  at  the  end. 
In  dictionaries  t^ese_Je^tters_wilj_always_be  found 
after  z}  in  the  order  named. 

Note. — I.  The  letter  y  is  used  only  as  a  sign  for  a  vowel; 
see  §  24. 

2.  W  and  q  occur  only  in  proper  names;  z  and  c  (with 
the  important  exception  named  in  §  40,  1,  and  note  1)  occur 
only  in  words  of  foreign  origin  and  in  proper  names. 
Kxamples:  lValli'11,  Almqvist,  zink  zinc,  Berze'lius,  occa'n 
ocean,   Celsius. 

3.  For  the  names  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  see  §  67. 

STRESS. 

2.  The  first  syllable  has  the  main  stress,  both 
in  simple  and  in  compound  words.  Ex.:  kvinna 
woman,  tala  to  speak,  gossarna  the  boys,  troligare 
more  likely,  avstand  distance,  jiirnviigsolycka  railway 
accident,  gcnomrcsa  to  travel  through,  erfara  to  ex- 
perience. 


8  STRESS  §   2 

Exceptions  to  this  rule  are  numerous: 

(a)  In  the  case  of  a  rather  large  number  of  com- 
pounds formed  from  two  (or  more)  words  that  orig- 
inally stood  side  by  side  in  the  sentence,  the  first 
of  these  in  many  instances  being  unstressed  owing 
to  the  fact  that  it  did  not  have  the  sentence-stress 
(see  note  2,  below),  the  main  stress  falls  on  the 
stressed  syllable  of  the  posterior  component  that 
originally  had  the  sentence- stress.  Ex.:  densam 'via 
the  same,  varan' dra  each  other,  farva'l  farewell, 
kanhan'da  perhaps,  iblan'd  sometimes,  ifr&'n  from, 
omkring1  around,  tillba'ka  back,  bveral'lt  everywhere, 
ihja'l  to  death,  atmirislone  at  least,  emel'lan  between , 
bredvi'd  beside,  naval  very  well,  minsan'n  upon  my 
word,  dsta'd  off,  bveren's  agreed,  dny'o  anew,  omin'- 
tetgbra  to  frustrate,  istan!  dsatta  to  repair,  Karlskro1- 
na,  Norrstrbm ',   Sodertal'je,    Vastera's,  Kristineham'n, 

Visingsb' ,  Gbtebor'g. 

(b)  Words  of  foreign  origin  are  as  a  rule  stressed 
on  the  same  syllable  as  in  the  foreign  language 
from  which  they  have  come;  in  a  very  large  num- 
ber of  instances,  particularly  in  words  borrowed 
from  French  or  the  Classical  Languages,  this  is  some 
syllable  other  than  the  first.  Ex.:  fotografi  photo- 
graph, armc  army,  laborato' rium  laboratory,  muse' - 
urn  museum,  sol  da' t  soldier,  exa'men  examination, 
aku't  acute,  tca'ter  theater,  proud  men  pronoun,  pia'- 
no  piano,  e/egan't  elegant,  famil'j  family,  april'  April, 
litteratu'r  literature,  adres's  address,  vwde'rn  modern, 
telefo'n  telephone,  lati'n  Latin,  Ame'rika,  Berli'n. 

(c)  Words  beginning  with  the  originally  foreign 
prefixes  be-,  ge-,  and  most  of  those  beginning  with 


§  2  STRESS  9 

for-,  stress  the  syllable  immediately  following.  As 
a  rule,  for-  is  not  stressed  when  it  corresponds  to 
German  "ver-",  but  stressed  when  it  corresponds 
to  German  "vor-".  Ex.:  bcrat'ta  to  relate,  bcskyd'd 
protection,  geva'r  weapon,  fbrsb'ka  to  try,  fbrh&t- 
lande  relation,  forsik'tig  careful. 

(d)  Nouns  with  the  originally  foreign  suffixes 
-ifiua,  -essa,  and  verbs  ending  in  the  originally  for- 
eign -era,  stress  the  first  syllable  of  these  endings; 
nouns  with  the  suffix  -eri  stress  the  last  syllable. 
Ex.:  lararin '  na  (woman)  teacher,  prinscs'sa  prin- 
cess, stude'ra  to  study,  telefone'ra  to  telephone,  ba- 
geri'  bakery. 

(e)  Some  adjectives  of    more    than    two    syllables 

ending  in  -lig    and  a  large  number    ending    in    -isk 

stress    the    syllable  immediately    preceding.       Ex.: 

egen'tlig    real,    orden'tlig  -orderly,    ojfen'tlig   public, 

fieri' tlig    hostile,    mora'lisk    moral,    poli'tisk  political, 

ka  na '  disk  Canadian. 

Note.  —  i.  The  position  of  the  stress  is  in  Swedish  not 
marked  except  in  words  of  foreign  origin  with  stressed  final 
t',  and  inflectional  forms  of  such  words;  in  this  case  the  stress- 
mark  is  placed  directly  above  the  e.  Ex.:  arme  army,  plur. 
arnicer.  Moreover,  a  stressed  e  is  thus  marked  in  some  prop- 
er names;  as,  Linne",  Tegnir,  Franzni.  In  some  cases  the 
stressed  e  is  doubled  in  proper  names;  as,  Noreen,  Andreen. 

In  this  book  the  stress,  whenever  not  on  the  first  syllable, 
is  marked  by  a  stress-mark  placed  after  the  long  sound  (cf. 
§  15). 

2.  In  Swedish  as  in  English,  many  words  in  the  sentence 
are  rapidly  passed  over  and  left  unstressed,  particularly  ar- 
ticles, pronouns,  prepositions,  conjunctions,  and  auxiliary- 
verbs;  also  not  infrequently  other  verbs,  adjectives,  adverbs, 
and  nouns.     See  §  12. 


10  ACCENT  §   3 

3.  Concerning  different  degrees  of  the  strength  of  the 
stress  of   syllables   not    having  the  main  stress,   see   §§   4-9. 

ACCENT. 

3.  In  the  pronunciation  of  an  English  word  of 
two  syllables,  let  us  .say  "roses",  the  second  sylla- 
ble, besides  having  much  weaker  stress,  has  either 
higher  or  lower  tone  than  the  first.  Similarly  in 
the  case  of  a  monosyllabic  word,  as  "rose",  the 
voice  either  rises  or  sinks  during  the  pronunciation. 

Swedish  words  of  one  syllable  are  accented  very 
much  like  such  words  in  English.  Also  not  a  few 
words  and  forms  of  two  or  more  syllables  are  ac- 
cented approximately  as  in  English,  but  most  words 
and  forms  of  two  or  more  syllables  (not  including 
words  beginning  with  unstressed  syllables)  have  in 
Swedish  an  accent  very  different  from  that  of  Eng- 
lish. The  Swedish  accent  that  resembles  the  Eng- 
lish, and  which  in  Swedish  belongs  primarily  to 
monosyllables,  is  called  the  acute  accent;  the  other, 
which  is  employed  with"  most  words  of  more  than 
one  syllable,  is  known  as  the  grave  accent. 

4.  Accent  is  a  combination  of  various  phases  of 
tone  and  stress.  Swedish  employs  three  different 
tones,  which  we  shall  designate  as  high  (H),  mid- 
dle (M),  and  low  (E).  Swedish  has  four  different 
degrees  of  strength  of  stress:  strong,  half-strong 
(or,  weakened),  weak,  and  weakest;  these  can  ad- 
vantageously be  designated  by  the  figures  3,  2,  1,  o, 
respectively. 

Note.  —  For  the  sake  of  convenience,  when  minute  dis- 
tinctions   are    unnecessary,    syllables   with    strong,  i.  e.,    the 


§   5  ACCENT  II 

main,  stress  are  in  this  book  called  stressed  syllables,    while 
syllables  with  stress  2,  1,  and  o  are  called  unstressed  syllables. 

5.  NATURE  OF  THE  ACUTE  ACCENT.  In  the  case 
of  words  of  two  syllables  the  acute  accent  combines 
high  tone  with  stress  3  on  the  first  syllable  and 
low  tone  with  stress  o  on  the  second  syllable;  as, 
talet  the  speech,  finger  finger,  biittre  better,  sadan 
such,  hander  hands,  nordisk  northern. 

If  the  word  has  three  syllables,  both  of  the  un- 
stressed (see  §  4,  note)  syllables  have  low  tone, 
but  the  third  syllable  has  stress  1 ;  as,  koffertar 
trunks,   understa  (the)  lowest,  hdnderna    the  hands. 

Note.  —  Also  when  there  are  more  than  three  syllables, 
all  the  unstressed  syllables  have  low  tope.  The  syllable  im- 
mediately following  the  stressed  syllable  here  too  has  stress 
o;  of  the  others,  every  second  or  every  third  syllable,  count- 
ing from  the  main  stress  of  the  word,  has  stress  1.  Thus, 
words  with  four  syllables  usually  have  the  succession  3001, 
but  frequently  3010;  as,  koffertarna  the  trunks. 

6.  NATURE  OF  THE  GRAVE  ACCENT.  Words  of 
two  syllables  have  on  the  first  syllable  stress  3,  the 
stress  decreasing  only  moderately  (i.  e.,  less  than 
in  words  with  the  acute  accent)  and  then  increas- 
ing a  little  just  before  the  end  of  the  syllable;  the 
first  syllable  begins  with  the  middle  tone,  then 
sinks  to  the  low  tone,  rising  a  little  just  before  the 
end  of  the  syllable;  the  second  syllable  combines 
high  tone  with  stress  1.  Cf.  tala  (grave)  to  speak, 
with  talet  (acute)  the  speech.  Ex.:  kvinna  woman, 
gammal  old,  trogen  faithful,  aldrig  never,  honom 
him,  bgon   eyes. 

If  there  are  three  syllables,  the  first  combines 
middle  tone  with  stress  3,  the  stress  decreasing  on- 


12  ACCENT  §   7 

ly  moderately;  the  second  combines  low  tone  with 
stress  o;  the  third,  high  tone-  with  stress  i.  It 
will  be  observed  that  the  accentual  conditions  of 
the  first  syllable  of  dissyllables  are  distributed  over 
the  first  two  syllables  of  trisyllables.  Compare  ia- 
lade  (grave)  spoke,  with  the  last  three  syllables  of 
beta' lade  (acute)  payed.  Ex.:  manniska  human  be- 
ing, larare  teacher,  skenare  more  beautiful,  arbcte 
work. 

Note.  —  If  there  are  more  than  three  syllables,  all  the  un- 
stressed syllables  have  low  tone,  except  the  last,  which  has 
high  tone.  The  stress-conditions  are  identical  with  those 
described  in  §  5,  note.     Ex.:  konungarna  the  kings. 

7.  SUMMARY.       Two  syllables       Three  syllables 

Acute:  H  3:  h  o  H  3:  L  o:  L  1 

Grave:  ML  3:  H  1  M  3:  1,  o:  H  1 

8.  COMPOUND  WORDS  (including  here,  as  else- 
where, words  with  such  suffixes  as  -dom,  -het,  -lek, 
-sam,  -skap,  -bar,  -aktig,  which  are  treated  as  pos- 
terior components  of  compound  words).  The  accent 
of  compounds  is  similar  to  that  just  described,  ex- 
cept for  the  degree  of  stress  of  the  unstressed  syl- 
lables. Compound  words  with  the  grave  accent  have 
stress  2  on  that  syllable  of  the  second  component 
that  has  the  strongest  stress  (for  compounds  with 
main  stress  on  the  second  component,  cf.  §  9);  com- 
pounds with  the  acute  accent  have  stress  1  on  such 
syllables,  but  sometimes  this  is  reduced  to  stress  o. 
Ex.:  (Stress  2)  skolhus  school-house,  handelsbod 
store,  genomresa  to  travel  through.  (Stress  1)  trad- 
gard  orchard,  Smaland.  (Stress  o)  midda(g)  din- 
ner, 7)ianda{g)   Monday,  farbror  uncle. 


§  9  ACCENT  13 

Note.  —  In  the  matter  of  the  relative  stress  of  the  un- 
stressed syllables  (cf.  §  5,  note),  stress  2  in  compounds  usually 
takes  the  place  of  stress  1  in  simple  words.  Stress  2  may  al- 
so rest  on  the  syllable  immediately  following  the  main  stress 
of  the  word,  in  which  case  the  use  of  stress  1  on  following 
syllables  follows  the  rule  given  in  §  5,  note,  but  counting 
from  the  syllable  with  stress  2.  Thus,  dissyllabic  compounds 
with  the  grave  accent  have  the  stress-succession  3  2;  trisyl- 
lables have  320  or  3  o  2;  compounds  with  four  syllables 
have  3201,3020,  or  300  2. 

1).  WORDS  NOT  STRESSED  ON  THE  FIRST  SYLLA- 
BLE. Beginning  with  the  stressed  syllable,  the  ac- 
cent of  words  not  stressed  on  the  first  syllable  is 
identical  with  that  described  in  §§  5  and  6.  That 
is,  words  stressed  on  the  last  syllable  have  the  acute 
accent,  like  monosyllables.  Other  words  not  stressed 
on  the  first  syllable  have  either  the  acute  or  the 
grave  accent;  the  acute  accent,  however,  predomi- 
nates strongly   (see  §   n,   a). 

All  syllables  preceding  the  main  stress  have    low 

tone,  whatever  the  accent  of  the  remainder    of    the 

word  is.     If  there  is  one  syllable  preceding,  it    has 

stress  o;  if  there  are    two,    the    first    has   stress    1, 

and   the  second  has  stress  o.     Ex. :  maski'n  machine, 

fotoge'n  kerosene. 

Note.  —  When  there  are  three  syllables  preceding  the  main 
stress,  the  succession  is  usually  100,  less  often  010;  when 
tbere  are  four  syllables,  it  is  1  o  1  o,  less  often  0100.  Cf. 
§  5,  note.  Ex.:  litteratu'r  literature,  akademi'  academy, 
midtiplice'ra  to  multiply,  universite't  university,  individuel'l 
individual. 

10.  HOW  TO  LEARN  THE  GRAVE  ACCENT.  The 
grave  accent  is  more  difficult  to  learn  than  anything 
else  connected  with  the  pronunciation    of    Swedish. 


14  ACCENT  §    IO 

A  detailed  description  of  it  can  do  little  good  with- 
out a  careful  demonstration  by  a  teacher. 

The  pronunciation  of  words  of  three  syllables 
should  first  be  mastered  (as  talade).  When  this 
has  been  acquired,  and  the  distribution  of  the  tones 
is  clearly  understood,  the  student  can  learn  the  ac- 
cent of  words  of  two  syllables  (as  tald)  with  much 
less  difficulty.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the 
first  syllable  of  lata  embraces  the  accentual  features 
of  the  first  two  syllables  of  talade;  the  final  syllables 
are  alike.  The  student  will  be  materially  aided  by 
first  hearing  the  two  first  syllables  of  talade  (tala-) 
without  the  final  syllable,  but  as  if  this  were  to  fol- 
low; then,  similarly,  the  first  syllable  of  tala  (/«-) 
alone,  which,  finally,  should  be  compared  with  the 
accent  of  monosyllables  (as  ta).  It  will  also  be 
found  profitable  to  practise  with  words  that  are 
pronounced  alike  except  for  the  accent,  and  are 
different  in  meaning.  Such  are: 
ACUTE  ACCENT  GRAVE  ACCENT 

anden  the  duck  anden  the  breath,  the  spirit 

axel  shoulder  axel  axle,  Axel 

(del)  bristcr  (it)   breaks        brister  faults 
buren  the  cage  buren  carried 

baren  the  berries  baren  carry   (imperative) 

giftet  the   poison  gifiet  the  marriage 

haven  the  seas  (/)  haven  (you)  have 

heden  the  heath  heden  heathen 

rcgcl  rule  regel  bolt 

(lian)  skanker  (he)  presents  skanker  gifts 
slutet  the  end  slutet  close 

{hari)  si  rider  (he)  fights      strider  fights 


§    II  ACCENT  15 

11.      RULES  FOR  DETERMINING  WHICH 
WORDS     OF  MORE  THAN  ONE 
SYLLABLE  HAVE  THE 
ACUTE  ACCENT. 

(a)  Most  words  stressed  on  some  syllable  other 
than  the  first  have  the  acute  accent.  Ex.:  tillba'ka 
back,  tea'ter  theater,  prono'mcn  pronoun,  beta' la  to 
pay  (but  tala  to  speak,  has  the  grave),  fbrsb'ka  to 
try  (but  sbka  to  seek,  has  the  grave),  fbrhdl' lande 
relation,  for  hop  'pning  expectation,  fbrsik'tig  careful, 
stude'ra  to  study,  egen'tlig  real,  poli'tisk  political, 
Ame'rika. 

Also  inflectional  forms  of  such  words  have  the 
acute  accent,  even  when  a  syllable  is  added.  Ex.: 
tea' tern,  tea'trar,  tea'trama,  def.  sing,  and  indef. 
and  def.  plur.  of  tea'ter;  prono'minet,  def.  of  pro- 
no' men;  berat'tade,  past  tense  of  berat'ta;  fbrh&l'lan- 
det,  fbrh&V  landen{a) ,  forms  of  for/id! 'lande;  for 'hop ' p- 
ningen ,  fbrhop ' pningar(na)  ,  forms  of  fbrhopp ' ning ; 
fbrsik'  tiga,  fbrsik' tig  are ,  fbrsik! 't/gast,  a-iorm,  comp., 
and.  superl.  of  fbrsik'tig;  stnde'rade,  past  of  stude'ra, 
egeu'tliga,  poli'liska,    a -form  of  egen'tlig,    poli'tisk. 

When,  in  the  process  of  inflection,  one  or  more  syl- 
lables are  added  to  a  word  of  more  than  one  syllable 
stressed  on  the  last  syllable,  the  resulting  form  has 
the  acute  accent.  Ex.:  exklusi'va,  a-form  of  exklusi'v 
exclusive;  bekvamare,  bekvii'  mast,  comp.  and  superl. 
of  bekvd'm  comfortable;  forlus'ter,  plur.  of  fori  us' t 
loss;  bageri'cr,  plur.   of  bageri'  bakery. 

Note. —  1.  Nouns  ending  in  -in'na  and  -cs'sa  do  not  have 
the  acute  accent  (for  examples  see  §  2,  d). 


16  ACCENT  §  II,  b 

2.  Many  compounds,  and  some  simple  words,  have  the 
grave  accent,  though  stressed  on  some  syllable  other  than 
the  first.  Ex.:  kanhan'da  perhaps,  varan' dra  each  other, 
istan'dsatta  to  repair,  atmin'  stone  at  least,  profes'sor  pro- 
fessor (but  acute  accent  and  stress-shift  in  the  plur.  profes- 
so'rer),  Karlskro'na. 

(b)  Most  words  of  foreign  origin  have  the  acute 
accent,  which  resembles  that  of  the  languages  from 
which  the  loan-words  have  come  more  than  does 
the  grave  accent.  Not  a  few  of  these,  however, 
have  either  the  acute  or  the  grave  accent,  while 
some  have  the  grave.  Examples  of  loan-woids 
stressed  on  some  syllable  other  than  the  first  and 
having  the  acute  accent  have  been  given  under  (a); 
here  follow  examples  of  those  stressed  on  the  first 
syllable:  genus  gender,  negcr  negro,  kilo  kilogran  , 
pojke  (usually  acute)  boy,  angest  anguish,  koffcrt 
trunk,  Paulus,   London. 

Note. —  I.  Here  belong  also  words  with  the  originally 
foreign  suffix  -isk;  as,  nordisk  northern,  grekisk  Greek, 
jordisk  earthly. 

2.  Inflectional  forms  of  most  words  of  foreign  origin  also 
have  the  acute  accent,  even  when  a  syllable  is  added.  Ex.: 
kofferten,  koffertar(na),  from  koffcrt;  negern,  negrer(na), 
from  neger;  nordisk  a,  a-form  of  nordisk. 

Exceptions  to  this  are,  for  example,  nouns  of  foreign 
origin  ending  in  -cl,  -en,  -er  with  plural  in  -ar;  as,  bibel 
bible,  biblar{na)\  froken  young  lady,  froknaii  na  ;  febcr 
fever,  fcbrar(na).  Similarly  in  all  adjectives  ending  in  -el, 
-er,  which  have  the  acute  accent,  when  -a,  -are,  -ast  are 
added;  as,  sii/ipei  simple,  simp/a,  simp  tare,  simpiast;  saker 
sure,  sakra,   sdkrare,  sdkrast.     See  under  (c)  below. 

(c)  Most  words  ending  in  -cl,  -en,  -er  have  the 
acute  accent.  No  distinction  is  in  the  following 
account  made  between  native  words    and    words    of 


§  II,  d  ACCENT  17 

foreign  origin.  (1)  Almost  all  nouns  with  these 
endings  have  the  acute  accent,  except  that  rather 
many  ending  in  -el  in  the  Second  Declension  have 
the  grave;  as,  nyckel  key,  himmel  heaven.  More- 
over, nouns  ending  in  -er  and  indicating  relation- 
ship have  the  grave  accent  (as  modcr  mother,  fader 
father,  broder  brother,  syster  sister,  dotter  daughter). 
Examples  of  nouns  with  the  acute  accent:  fagel 
bird,  vigsel  marriage,  dker  field,  socken  parish,  ?ieger 
negro,  miiskel  muscle,  hagel  hail,  finster  window, 
vatten  water.  (2)  All  adjectives  ending  in  -el,  -er 
have  the  acute  accent,  but  those  ending  in  -en  have 
the  grave  accent.  Ex.:  (Acute)  simpcl  simple, 
iidel  noble,  bitter  bitter.  (Grave)  oppen  open,  liten 
small.  (3)  Most  indeclinable  words  ending  in  -erhave 
the  acute  accent.  Ex.:  tinder  under,  over  over,  eller 
or,  soder  south,  sbnder  asunder,  heller  either. 

Note. — 1.  Nouns  with  the  endings  given  above  that  have 
the  plural  ending  in  -ar  have  the  grave  accent  in  this  form, 
but  plurals  in  -er  have  the  acute  accent.  Tofflor,  plur.  of 
ioffel  slipper,  has  either  the  acute  or  the  grave  accent. 
Nouns  that  have  the  same  form  in  the  singular  and  plural  have 
also  the  same  accent  in  both.  The  two  words  broder  brother, 
and  fader  father,  which  in  the  singular  have  the  grave  ac- 
cent, have  the  acute  in  the  plural,  broder,  fader. 

2.  Adjectives  with  the  endings  mentioned  above  which 
have  the  acute  accent,  have  the  grave  accent  in  the  a-form 
and  in  the  comparative  and  superlative;  as,  simp/a,  simp/are, 
simplast.  But  the  t-ioxxn.  (simpelt)  has  the  acute.  Cf.  b, 
note  2,  end,  above. 

(d)  In    the   process    of    inflection,    in  addition  to 

the  instances  noted  above,  the  acute  accent    occurs 

as  follows:     (1)     When,   through  the  addition  of  a 

plural  ending,  a  monosyllabic  noun  becomes  dissyl- 


18  ACCENT  §  II,  d 

labic,  the  resulting  form  has  the  grave  accent.  In 
the  Third  Declension,  however,  all  nouns  that  modi- 
fy or  shorten  the  vowel  in  forming  the  plural  (with 
the  exception  of  sbner,  plur.  of  son  son)  have  the 
acute  accent;  as,  bbcker,  plur.  of  bok  book;  hander, 
plur.  ol  hand  hand;  getter,  plur.  of  get  goat.  All  but 
one  of  these,  bonde,  are  monosyllabic;  note  also  leda- 
vio't.  Also  a  few  other  monosyllabic  nouns  (not  of 
common  occurrence)  of  this  declension  have  the  acute 
accent  in  the  plural.  Some  may  have  either  the  acute 
or  the  grave  accent,  usually  in  different  localities;  as, 
vz'ner,  plur.  of  vin  wine;  sakcr,  plur.  of   sak    thing. 

(2)  Comparatives  ending  in  -re  (-rre)  have  the 
acute  accent,  except  f'brre  former,  which  always  has 
the  grave,  and  nedre  nether,  undre  lower,  bvre  upper, 
which  have  either  the  acute  or  the  grave.  Superla- 
tives ending  in  -erst  have  either  the  acute  or  the 
grave  accent,  both  in  the  inflected  and  in  the  un- 
inflected  form;  as,  bverst  uppermost,  ytterst  outermost. 

(3)  The  present  singular  indicative  active  ending 
in  -er  has  the  acute;  as,  kbper  buys,  dbmer   judges, 

finncr  finds.  (4)  The  present  singular  indicative 
passive  ending  in  -es  usually  has  the  acute,  but 
sometimes  the  grave  accent;  as,  hopes  is  bought, 
domes  is  judged,  finnes  is  found.  (5)  The  addition 
of  the  post-positive  definite  article  never  changes 
the  nature  of  the  accent  of  the  form  to  which  it  is 
added,  whether  it  results  in  the  addition  of  a  sylla- 
ble or  not.  In  the  following  examples  the  definite 
form  has  the  acute  accent  because  the  indefinite 
form  has  the  acute:  bordet,  borden,  from  bord  table; 
biet,  bina,  from  bi  (plur.  bin)  bee;  bib/iote' ket,  bibliote'- 


§  II,  e  ACCENT  19 

ken,  from  bibliote  k  library;  tea' tern,  tea'trarna,  from 
tea' ter  (plur.  tea'trar)  theater;  kofferten,  koffertarna, 
from  koffert  (plur.  koffertar)  trunk;  fag eln,  from  fdgel 
bird;  kaglet,  haglen,  from  hagel  hail;  muskeln,  musk- 
lema,  from  muskel  (plur.  muskier)  muscle;  boken, 
bbckerna,  from  bok  (plur.  backer)  book;  stolen,  from 
stol  chair. 

Note. —  Observe  that,  as  a  result  of  the  principle  stated  in 
d,  5,  monosyllabic  nouns  have  the  acute  accent  in  the  defi- 
nite singular,  but  in  most  cases  (cf.  d,  1)  the  grave  accent 
in  the  indefinite  and  definite  plural.     Cf.  also  above,  c,  note  I. 

(e)  Most  compounds  have  the  grave  accent.  Some, 
however,  have  the  acute  accent,  or,  more  often, 
either  the  acute  or  the  grave.  But  no  compound 
may  have  the  acute  accent  if  the  first  component 
as  an  independent  word  would  have  the  grave 
accent.  Particularly  frequent  is  the  acute  accent  in 
the  case  of  compounds  formed  from  two  (or  more) 
words  that  originally  stood  side  by  side  in  the 
sentence  (as  the  following  examples  show,  many 
such  compounds  are  stressed  on  the  first  syllable, 
i.  e.,  whenever  the  first  component  had  the  sentence- 
stress;  cf.  §  2,  a);  historically,  nouns  with  the  defi- 
nite article  appended  (cf.  d,  5)  are  compounds  of 
this  kind,  but  they  are  not  now  felt  as  com- 
pounds. Examples  of  the  acute  accent  in  this  type  of 
compounds  (some  of  these  no  longer  felt  as  com- 
pounds): allting  everything,  varf'br  why,  vardera 
each,  hittills  up  till  now,  sadan  such,  alltsa  accord- 
ingly, hejsan  hey,  middag  dinner,  tretti  thirty,  trad- 
gard  orchard,  vilken  which,  vari  wherein,  Sd(di  1 
manland,  Sverige,  Smdland.  Note  particularly  the 
compounds  with  s  between  the  component  parts;  as, 


20  ACCENT  §    12 

Kinsman  sheriff,  krigshar  army,  lifstid  lifetime, 
namnsdag  name-day,  torsdag  Thursday,  Dalsland, 
Ka  rlsson ,   Pe Iters son . 

12.  As  already  briefly  mentioned  (§  2,  note  2), 
many  words  in  the  sentence  are  left  um-tressed, 
that  is,  without  stress  3  on  any  syllable.  A  suc- 
cession of  unstressed  words  (and  syllables)  that 
thus  stands  between  two  syllables  having  stress  3, 
are  pronounced  with  stress  o  or  stress  1  in  accord- 
ance with  the  rules  given  in  §  5,  note.  In  the 
case  of  words  of  more  than  one  syllable,  stress  1 
then  usually  falls  on  the  syllable  that  has  the  main 
stress  when  the  word  is  pronounced  by  itself.   Ex.: 

0103  1        030010  o         3010 

professor  Flom.   Han  betalade  honom.    Han  ialar  inte. 
3010         30         1     o       1      o    3      o      o      3 
Ester  kokar  mat  och   hennes  garnle  Jar  hugger  red. 
However,    if  stress   1   would  stand  next  to  a  syllable 
with  stress  3,   it  is  reduced  to  o,    and    mother  syl- 
lable is  strengthened  and  receives  the  stress  1.  Ex.: 

103  0103  1003  03 

major  Palm,  butmajor  Helin  or  major  He/in,  from  major 

10  3  031003  103 

hotel!  Nord,   from  hotel/;  paragraf  tre   from  paragraf 

0301  31 

jag  vet  inte,   from   inte. 

These  unstressed  words  and  syllables  also  lose 
their  accentual  characteristics  and  are  pronounced 
in  a  monotone  which  in  Stockholm  is  the  high  tone. 
W'.ien  thus  unstressed,  the  grave  and  the  acute  ac- 
cent cannot  be  distinguished  from  each    other,    but 


§   13  ACCENT,  QUANTITY  21 

one  is  reminded  of  the  acute  rather  than  of  the 
grave  accent.  Compare,  for  instance,  the  accent  of 
mellan  ber'gen  and  over  ber'gen;  when  stressed, 
mellan  has  the  grave,  over,   the  acute  accent. 

13.  UNIFORMITY  OF  ACCENT  IN  SWEDEN.  The 
pronunciation  of  sounds  is  with  the  cultured  pretty 
much  the  same  throughout  Sweden,  01  there  is  at 
least  in  the  case  of  most  differences  an  attempt  to 
overcome  the  diverging  sounds  of  the  home-dialect. 
In  the  matter  of  accent  there  is,  however,  no  such 
uniformity,  nor  is  there  any  attempt  to  follow  a 
standard.  On  the  one  hand,  the  nature  of  the 
acute  and  the  grave  accent  varies  much  in  different 
parts  of  the  country;  on  the  other  hand,  very  many 
words  and  forms  may  have  either  the  grave  or  the 
acute  accent,  usually  varying  according  to  the 
locality.  The  grave  accent  is  on  the  whole  favored 
more  in  the  region  about  Lake  Malaren,  particularly 
in  Stockholm;  if  a  word  may  have  either  the  acute 
or  the  grave  accent,  it  usually  has  the  grave  accent 
in  the  region  named. 


-&■ 


QUANTITY. 

14.  All  unstressed  vowels  are  short;  as,  falla  to 
fall,  flickor  girls,  begyn'na  to  begin.  "Unstressed", 
as  here  used,  is  limited  to  stress  1  and  stress  o. 
In  syllables  with  stress  2  (compounds)  the  vowel 
may  be  long  or  short,  just  as  in  syllables  with  the 
main  stress;  as,   mansken  moon-light. 

A  stressed  vowel  is:  (a)  long  if  final,  or  if  fol- 
lowed   by    only    one    consonant;    as,    se   to  see,  dag 


22  QUANTITY  §    14  A   I 

day,  tala  (first  vowel)  to  speak;  (b)  short  if  fol- 
lowed by  more  than  one  consonant  (either  a  double 
consonant  or  a  consonant-group;  included  are  cases 
like  ng,  which,  of  course,  represents  only  one 
sound);  as,  hast  horse,  tacka  {ck  =  kfr)  to  thank, 
tall  pine,  lang  long. 

(A)  Exceptions  to  (a).  In  the  following  in- 
stances the  vowel  is  short  though  followed  by  only 
one  consonant: 

(1)  Vowels  followed  by  j  and  x  are  always  short. 
The  letters,  of  course,  represents  two  sounds.  Ex.: 
nej  no,  lax  salmon. 

(2)  Vowels  followed  by  final  m  and  n  are  in  some 
instances  long,  in  others,  short.     See  §   18. 

(3)  In  the  word-endings  -ik'el,  -ip'el,  -if el,  a  vow- 
el followed  by  a  single  consonant  is  short;  as,  ar- 
tik'el  article,  kapit'cl  chapter,  titel  title.  So  also  in 
a  number  of  individual  words,  most  of  which  may 
also  be  pronounced  with  a  long  vowel;  as,  wilh  a 
short  vowel,  frukost  breakfast,  april'  April,  Jupiter 
Jupiter,  d'oma  (cf.  §  18,  a)  to  judge;  varying  be- 
tween a  long  and  a  short  vowel  are,  for  example: 
apel  apple-tree,  hade  had,  radisa  radish,  tadel  cen- 
sure, tobak  tobacco,  vetenskap  science,  oken  desert, 
honom  (see  §  22,  4)  him,  saga  (with  changing 
consonant-sound)   to  say,  huvud  head. 

(B)  Exceptions  to  (b).  In  the  following  in- 
stances a  vow^el  is  long  although  followed  by  two 
consonants: 

(1)  Vowels  followed  by  the  supradentals  rd,  rl,  rn 
are  in  practically  all  cases  long;  a  prominent  excep- 


§    14  B   2  QUANTITY  23 

tion  is  herrn  the  gentleman,  in  which  the  vowel  is 
short.  Vowels  followed  by  rs  are  regularly  short; 
excepted  are  instances  where  5  has  been  added  as  an 
inflectional  ending  to  a  word  ending  in  r  preceded 
by  a  long  vowel,  in  which  case  the  vowel  remains 
long  in  accordance  with  2,  a,  below  (as  fars,  gen. 
of  far  father;  bars  pres.  sing.  ind.  pass,  of  bixra  to 
carry).  Vowels  followed  by  rt  are  usually  short, 
bnt  in  some  instances  long  (the  latter  not  only  in 
cases  like  stort,  n.  of  stor,  which  follows  2,  a,  be- 
low). As  supradentals,  these  five  consonant-groups 
are  in  reality  digraphs  and  represent  single  sounds. 
Ex.:  (Vowel  long)  barn  child,  bord  table,  piirla 
pearl,  art  species.  (Vowel  short)  hjarta  heart,  vers 
verse. 

(2)  In  the  process  of  inflection  and  derivation, 
owing  to  the  influence  of  word-forms  or  words  where 
the  vowel  is  followed  by  only  one  consonant,  the 
vowel  is  usually  long  though  the  inflectional  or  de- 
rivatory  process  results  in  a  consonant-group,  unless 
the  result  is  a  double  consonant.  The  following 
cases  occur:  (a)  The  addition  of  an  ending  {-de,  -te, 
-d,  -t,  -s).  Ex.:  (Second  Weak  Conjugation)  viig- 
de,  vdgd,  vagi,  from  viiga  to  weigh;  lakte,  lakt,  from 
laka  to  heal;  but  the  vowel  is  short  in  ledde,  ledd, 
lett,  from  leda  to  lead;  m'otte,  mbtt,  from  mbta  to 
meet.  (Adjectives)  brunt,  from  brun  brown;  but 
the  vowel  is  short  in  vitt,  from  vit  white.  Note 
also,  in  comparison,  cases  like  lag  low,  lagre,  lixgst, 
but  storre  (with  a  double  consonant).  (Genitives) 
stols,  from  stol  chair.  (Passives)  laks,  from  laka  to 
heal;  bars,  from  bar,    p.ist  tense  of    bdra    to    carry. 


24  QUANTITY  §   14  B  2 

(b)  Syncope  of  an  unstressed  vowel,  upon  the 
addition  of  an  inflectional  ending.  Ex.:  dkrar,  from 
aker  field;  haglet,  haglen,  from  hagel  hail;  vapnet, 
vapnen,  from  vapen  weapon;  rt^//«,  ddlare,  ddlasf, 
from  aafc/  noble,  (c)  Often  in  derivation,  particu- 
larly when  the  second  element  begins  with  /  or  n. 
Ex.:  ivra  to  exert  one's  self,  ivrig  eager,  cf.  iver 
eagerness;  segla  to  sail,  cf.  segel  sail;  mogna  to 
ripen,  cf.  mogen  ripe;  gulna  to  turn  yellow,  cf.  gul 
yellow;  germa'nsk  Germanic,  cf.  germd'n  Teuton; 
fbrso'nlig  reconcilable,  cf.  fdrso'na  to  conciliate;  syn- 
lig  visible,  cf.  synas  to  be  seen,  appear;  lasning  read- 
ing, cf.  llisa  to  read;  blast  blowing,  cf.  bldsa  to  blow; 
glddja  to  cheer,  cf.  glad  glad,  (d)  Usually  also  in 
composition,  even  when  the  result  is  a  double  con- 
sonant. Ex.:  uttaga  to  take  out,  cf.  ut  out;  valbar 
eligible,  cf.   val  election. 

Note. —  1.  Exceptions  to  2,  above.  When  the  genitive  (  f. 
2,  a)  occurs  in  certain  set  phrases,  the  vowel  is  shortened; 
so  also  usually  when  it  is  the  first  component  of  a  compound 
word,  and,  further,  in  a  few  additional  instances.  The  rule 
that  a  vowel  followed  by  more  than  one  consonant  is  sh<  rt 
can  here  assert  itself,  because  the  form  of  the  same  word 
with  a  long  vowel  is  not  present  to  the  mind.  Ex.:  till skogs 
(but  denna  skogs  cigare,  with  a  long  vowel),  till  havs  (but  ett 
havs  striinder)\  till  livs  (but  ett  helt  livs  moda)\  allt  slags; 
lids  nog;  hur  dags;  livstid;  slagsmdl;  riksdag;  regularly 
Guds,  with  the  vowel  short,  but  guds,  with  the  vowel  long. 
—  The  neuter  form  hogt,  from  hog  high,  has  a  short  vowel 
irregularly;  so  also  hogst  and  stdrsl  (from  stor  large).  —  In 
the  5-form  of  the  verb  the  vowel  is  in  some  instances 
shortened;  as,  syns,  from  synas  to  seem;  tors  from  tdras  to 
dare. — As  exceptions  to  2,  c,  observe,  e.  g.,  tCimja  to  tame, 
cf.  tarn  tame;  gronska  to  become  green,  cf.  grbn  rrcen; 
vidga  to  widen,  cf.  vid  wide. 


§   15  QUANTITY  25 

2.  Also  in  a  few  individual  words,  a  vowel  is  long  though 
followed  by  more  than  one  consonant;  as,  aln  yard,  ell,  tnoln 
cloud.     In  a  few  such,  the  vowel  may  be  eitlier  long  or  sbort. 

15.     CONSONANT-LENGTH.     In     Swedish,     conso- 
nants as  well  as    vowels   are    either    long    or    short. 
■  In  stressed  syllables,   if  tbe  vowel  is  short,  the  con- 
sonant immediately  following  is  long;  if    the    vowel 
is  long,  the  consonant  immediately  following  is  sbort. 

In  Swedish,   one  sound  in    each    word,    and    only 

one,  is  always  long.    Either  the  vowel  of  the  stressed 

syllable  is  long,  or  the  consonant   (if  there  is    one) 

following  immediately  upon  this  vowel  is  long.     All 

other  sounds  in  the  word  are  short,  both  consonants 

and  vowels. 

Note.  —  In  compounds  having  stress  2  on  one  component, 
there  is  one  long  sound  in  each  of  two  syllables  (as  nidnskev). 

1G.  QUANTITY  AND  SENTENCE-STRESS.  In  all 
words  in  a  sentence  that  do  not  have  the  sentence- 
stress  (see  §  2,  note  2,  and  §  12)  the  long  sound 
is  shortened,  such  words  containing  no  long  sound. 
Ex.:  do  bo/t  to  die  away,  ga  hem'  to  go  home,  ja 
vis' st  of  course,  om  du  vil'l  if  you  want  to,  sa  da'r 
that  way. 

17-  ORTHOGRArillC  INDICATION  OF  LENGTH  OF 
SOUND.  Long  vowels  are  not  distinguished  in  writ- 
ing from  short  vowels;  the  quantity  of  vowels  can 
be  deduced  from  the  consonants  that  follow  them, 
according  to  the  rules  of  §   14. 

Consonant-length  is  not  indicated  in  the  case  of 
/,  x  (for  examples  see  §  14  A  1),  digraphs  (as 
ng) ,  and  trigraphs  (as  sch).  In  the  case  of  other 
consonants,  consonant  length  is  indicated  by  a  double 


26  QUANTITY  §    17 

consonant:  (a)  finally  (but  see  §  18  concerning 
111  and  ri)\  as,  halt  hat,  tack  {ck  =  kk)  thanks,  vass 
sharp,  dorr  door,  dagg  dew,  ^«^  bed,  till  to; 
(b)  between  vowels;  as,  sitta  to  sit,  tacka  {ck  =  kfc)  to- 
thank,  ^m«  to  guess,  stirra  to  stare,  vagga  cradle, 
ladda  to  load,  stilla  quietly;  (c)  before  /,  n,  r,  but 
m  is  never  doubled  in  this  position,  and  11  rarely 
(the  cases  of  n  are  not  many,  as  eriura  to  remem- 
ber, inre  inner;  but  tunnlar,  plur.  of  tunnel  tunnel); 
as,  uggla  owl,  fackla  {ck  =  kk)  torch,  bppna  to  open, 
vissna  to  wither,  offret,  def.  sing,  of  offer  victim, 
apple  apple,  vackra,  tf-forrn  of  vacker  beautiful. 

Except  before  /,  n,  r,  long  consonants  are  not 
doubleS*  when  followed  by  another  consonant;  as, 
fisk  fish.  When,  however,  in  the  process  of  inflec- 
tion, a  long  consonant  written  double  in  accordance 
with  (a)  or  (b),  above,  comes  to  stand  before  a  con- 
sonant in  an  inflectional  ending  {-de,  -te,  -d,  -t,  -s), 
it  remains  doubled  (but  m  and  n  remain  doubled 
only  before  s) ;  as,  fdlldc,  Jalld,  fallt,  from  fdlla  to 
fell;  viickte,  vdc/ct,  from  vacka  to  awaken;  tryggt,  u. 
of  trygg  secure;  tails,  gen.  of  tall  pine;  stalls,  pres. 
sing.  pass,  of  stalla  to  place;  lamms,  gen.  of  la  mm 
lamb;  spanns,  gen.  of  spann  bucket;  Jimis,  pres.  of 
finnas  to  be.  But  notice  begyn'te,  begyn't,  from  be- 
gyn'na  to  begin;  kande,  kand,  kant  from  kanna  to 
know;   sant,  n.  of  sa?in  true. 

Note.  —  1.  The  rules  of  §  17  and  §  iS  take  no  account 
of  the  orthography  of  consonants  at  the  end  of  the  prior 
components  of  compounds,  in  the  case  of  which  the  spelling 
remains  as  it  was  in  the  original  word;  as,  kannbar,  cf.  kan- 
na; manskap,  cf.  man;  inom,  cf.  in.  But  notice  tillata,  from 
till  and  lata. 


§   iS  QUANTITY  27 

2.  In  a  number  of  words,  almost  all  of  foreign  origin,  a 
double  consonant  is  written  in  unstressed  syllables  between 
vowels,  although  the  sound  of  the  consonant  is  short;  as, 
ko))i))iittc  committee,  possessi'v  possessive,  professo'rer  pro- 
fessors, adde'ra  to  add,  litteratu'r  literature. 

18-     CONCERNING  ORTHOGRAPHY  OF  M  AND  N. 

(a)  IyOiig  m  is  written  double  between  vowels 
(except  in  romare  Roman;  amen  amen;  dbma  to 
judge;  domen,  domar,  from  dom  sentence,  and  related 
words).  Ex.:  komma  to  come,  sommar  summer. 
Otherwise  m  is  never  doubled  (except  finally  in  the 
three  words  davim  dust,  dam,  lamm  lamb,  ramm 
ram).  Ex.:  om  if,  vein  who,  som  who,  fern  five, 
dem  them.  Note  cases  like  the  following:  hem  home, 
but  hemmct,  hcmmcn;  torn  empty,  but  tomma;  tele- 
gram' telegram,  but  telegram 'met ',  telegram' men;  drbm 
dream,  but  drbmmen,  drbmmar;  drbm  (imperative), 
drdmde,  drbmt,  but  drbmma  to  dream:  kom  (impera- 
tive and  past  sing.),  but  komma  to  come,  past  phir. 
kommo;  somrar,  plur.  of  sommar  summer;  himlar, 
plur.   of  himmel  heaven;  gamla,  from  gammal  old. 

(b)  L,ong  n  is  in  a  number  of  words  not  written 
double  when  final:  han  he,  hon  she,  den  it,  min  my, 
din  your,  sin  his,  etc.,  en  one,  man  (plur.  man, 
but  def.  mannoi,  mannen)  man,  van  (but  viinnen, 
vanner)  friend,  m/in  (but  munnen,  munnar)  mouth, 
lean  (but  kunnd)  can,  men  but,  an  still,  igen'  again, 
in  in,  allman  (but  allmanna)  common,  an  (a  par- 
ticle), sj'bn,  def.  of  sjb  lake.  In  other  words,  final 
long  n  is  doubled;  as,  skinn  skin;  kann,  past  sing. 
of  hinna  to  reach;  fann,  past  sing,  of  Jinna  to  find; 
sa?in  true;  iunn  thin.  Between  vowels,  long  w  is 
regularly  doubled.     When  followed  by  another  con- 


?.8  VOWELS  8   ^9 

sonant,  long  n  is  doubled  only  before  s  of  an  inflec- 
tional ending;  see  examples  in  §  17. 

Note.  —  A  single  final  m  and  n  may  of  course  also  repre- 
sent short  m  and  n;  as,  lam  lame,  dam  lady,  tarn  tame, 
fin  fine,  van  accustomed,  man  mane,  vin  wine. 

VOWELS. 

Note.  —  A  careful  distinction  should  be  made  between  tbe 
duration  of  long  and  short  vowels;  long  vowels  should  not 
be  pronounced  too  short.  Swedish  long  vowels  do  not  have 
the  vanish  which  is  so  characteristic  of  English.  Special 
care  should  be  taken  to  pronounce  clearly  unstressed  a,  which 
is  exceedingly  common  in  endings.  There  are  no  silent  vow- 
els. Vowels  do  not  change  their  sound  before  r  (except  as 
stated  in  §  61). 

a. 

11).  LONG.  (1)  Long  a  has  a  sound  midway  be- 
tween that  of  the  stressed  vowel  in  "father"  and 
"saw".  Ex.:  av  of,  hat  hate,  fara  to  travel,  bra 
well. 

SHORT.  (2)  Short  a  has  the  sound  of  the  first 
"a"  in  "aha",  or  of  "a"  in  German  "Mann".  Ex.: 
halt  hat,  alia  (both  vowels;  plur.  of  all  all),  arm 
arm,  utan  without,  fiicka  girl. 

Note.  —  Observe  that  in  cases  like  fa/a  to  speak,  the  two 
a's  are  different  in  quality  (as  well  as  in  quantity),  while  iu 
tacka  to  thank,  they  are  identical. 

e. 

20.  LONG.  (1)  The  sottnd  of  long  e  lies  midway 
between  that  of  "i"  in  "hid"  (prolonged)  and  "a" 
in  "hate"  (without  the  vanish).  It  is  very  close 
to  the  vowel-sound  of  German  "See".    Ex.:  ek  oak, 


g   20  VOWELS  29 

er  }rour,  het  hot,   veta  to  know,   redan  already,  se  to 
see. 

(2)  In  the  prefix  er-t  and  in  a  few  individual 
words,  most  of  which  may  also  have  the  sound  de- 
scribed in  (1),  long  e  has  the  sound  of  long  a  (see 
§  26,  1).  Ex.:  erhalla  to  receive,  ersatta  to  com- 
pensate, med  with,  det  that,  problem  problem,  sy- 
st  'in  system,  poe'm  poem,  mode ' rn  modern,  chef  chief, 
kuve'rt  (vowel  long  only  when  the  final  /  is  not  pro- 
nounced) envelope,  Per. 

SHORT.  (3)  When  short  and  stressed,  and  when 
it  precedes  the  main  stress,  short  e  normally  has 
the  short  sound  corresponding  to  the  long  e  of  (1). 
Ex.:  ctt  (n.  of  en  one),  hett  (u.  of  het  hot),  vecka 
week,    begri'pa  to  understand,  gevd'r  weapon. 

(4)  When  short  and  stressed,  frequently  also  when 
unstressed  (both  before  and  after  the  main  stress), 
it  is  pronounced  like  short  a  (see  §  26,  2)  in  a 
large  number  of  words,  of  which  many  are  of  for- 
eign origin.  Ex.:  den  it,  denna  (n.  detta)  this,  men 
but,  sex  six,  berg  mountain,  nej  no,  eller  (first  e) 
or,  Sver(i)ge  (first  e)  Sweden,  svensk  Swedish,  mest 
most,  biljet't  ticket,  fen '  tlig  hostile,  accen't  accent, 
verb  verb,  England  England,  septem'ber  (first  two 
^'s)  September,  adjektiv  adjective,  exa'men  (first  e) 
examination. 

(5)  When  unstressed,  e  has  in  endings  the  sound 
of  "a"  in  "ago",  or  of  "e"  in  German  "Gabe". 
Ex.:  gosse  boy,  taket  the  roof,  saken  the  thing,  vat- 
ten  water,  himmel  heaven,  syster  sister,,  fbdelse  (both 
£'s)  birth,  hedern  the  honor,  finnes  is  found. 


3o 


VOWELS  §   21 


21.  LONG.  (0  Long  i  has  the  sound  of  "i"  in 
"police"  (no  vanish).  Ex.:  i  in,  is  ice.  liv  life, 
bita  to  bite,   bi  bee. 

SHORT.  C2)  Short  i  has  the  corresponding  short 
sound,  as  in  the  first  syllable  of  "event",  "enough". 
Ex.:  in  in,  irra  to  wander,  min  (n.  mitt)  my,  sitta 
to  sit,  juni  June. 

o. 

22.  LONG.  CO  Long  o  has  normally  a  sound  not 
very  unlike  that  of  "oo"  in  "boot"  (no  vanish). 
Ex.:  ord  word,   broder  brother,  kov  hoof,  bo  to  live. 

(2)  In  a  few  native  words  and  in  a  large  number 
of  words  of  foreign  origin,  it  has  the  soungLofJong 
a  (see  §  25,  1).  Ex.:  son  son,  sova  to  sleep,  ko- 
nung  king,  lova  to  promise,  ovan  above,  hov  court, 
JUosdf  philosopher,  katalo'g  catalog,  logisk  logical, 
telefo'n  (also  with  the  0  of  1,  above)  telephone. 

SHORT.  (3)  In  a  number  of  words,  short  o  has 
the  short  sound  corresponding  to  that  of  long  o  in 
(1).  Ex.:  hon  she,  onsdag  Wednesday,  ost  cheese, 
orm  snake,  socken  (or  the  o  of  4)  parish,  bonde 
peasant,  bodde,  bott  (forms  of  bo  to  live),  dom  judg- 
ment, Momma  flower,  pia'no  piano,  voka'l  vowel,  tele- 
fond  ra  (or  the  0  of  4)  to  telephone,  botanik  botany, 
konsonan't  (second  0)  consonant,  kilo  kilogram,  kro- 
kodi'l  (both  ds)  crocodile,  gavo  (from  giva  to  give). 

(4)  In  a  very  large  number  of  words,  short  o 
has  the  sound  of  short  a  (see  §  25,  2).  Ex.:  ofta 
often,  oss  us,  gott  (n.  of  god  good),  doktor  (both  ds) 


§  23  VOWELS  31 

doctor,  Stockholm  (both  <?'s),  Norge  Norway,  honom 
(often  pron.  with  long  oof  i  in  first  syllable;  in 
some  parts  of  Sweden,  with  long  oof  2),  trottoa'r  (both 
o's)   side-walk,  diftong'  diphthong,   a/ton  evening. 

Note.  —  1.  In  the  plural-ending  -or  of  the  First  Declen- 
sion, o  may  have  either  of  the  short  sounds  of  o  given  above, 
or  it  may  have  a  sound  resembling  that  of  "00"  in  "book". 
Ex.:  flickor  girls. 

2.     Concerning  oil  see  §  23,  note  2. 

u. 

23.  LONG.  (1)  The  sound  of  long  u  may  be  pro- 
dnced  by  placing  the  tongue  in  position  for  the  "a" 
of  English  "ate",  and  rounding  the  lips  so  that 
the  aperture  is  very  small;  the  lips  are  usually  drawn 
close  to  the  teeth  and  not  protruded.  Ex.:  7*7  out, 
hus  house,  njuta  to  enjoy,  dit  you. 

SHORT.  (2)  Short  u  may  be  produced  by  placing 
the  tongue  in  position  for  a  vowel  lying  between 
the  sound  of  "e"  in  "met"  and  "a"  in  "mat", 
and  rounding  the  lips  without  protrusion  so  that 
the  aperture  is  moderately  large.  It  is  practically 
the  same  sound  as  that  of  the  final  vowel  of  "value" 
(omitting  the  y-sound).  Ex.:  ting  young,  kung 
king,  bundo  (from  binda  to  bind),  konung  king, 
universite't  university,  huvud  (concerning  this,  see 
§  14  A  3)  head. 

Note.  —  1.  In  some  words  borrowed  from  French,  u  (both 
long  and  short)  has  the  sound  of  y  (see  §  24);  as,  juste'ra 
to  adjust,  assure' ra  to  insure,  obsku'r  (pronounced  either 
with  the  sound  of  long  u  or  that  of  long  y)  obscure. 

2.  In  words  borrowed  from  French,  oil  occurs  and  has 
the  sound  of  u  (both  long  and  short);  as,  bonjou'r  (pron. 
bongsju'r\  frock-coat,  journa'l  (pron.  sjA  journal. 


32  VOWELS  §    24 

3.  Swedish  u  never  begins  with  the  sound  of  English 
consonantal  "y",  as  in  "use",  "unite";  as,  universite't  uni- 
versity, musi'k  music,  muse'utn  museum. 

y- 

24.  LONG.    (1)  Long  y  has  a  sound  that  resem- 
bles  German  "ii",  as  in  "iiber",  but  lies  closer   to 
Swedish  i.     Ex.:  yr  dizzy,  tyg  cloth,  flyga    to    fly 
ny  new. 

SHORT.  (2)  Short  y  has  the  short  sound  corre 
sponding  to  long  y.  Ex.:  yxa  axe,  syster  sister,  fiyt 
ta  to  move,  tryckeri'  printing-shop,  syre'n  lilac. 

Note.  —  In  the  word  fyrfi(o)  forty,  y  has  the  sound  o 
short  6  (see  §  27,  2);  so  usually  also  in  kyrka  church. 

o 

a. 

25.  LONG.     (1)    Long   a    has    approximately    t 
sound   of    "o"     in     "rope"     (no    vanish).     Ex.: 
river,  as  ridge,   bat  boat,  gas    goose,    sta    to    Stan 
bid  blue. 

SHORT.     (2)   Short  d  has  the    sound    of    "o" 
"obey",  or  of  the    first    part    of    the    diphthong 
"boy".    Ex.:  dska  thunder,  Idng  long,  manga  man;    > 
stdtt  (from  sta  to  stand),  bldtt  (n.  of  bid  blue). 

a. 

26.  LONG.  (1)  Long  a  has  approximately  th< 
same  sound  as  "ai"  in  "air",  being  the  same  a 
"a"  in  German  "ahnlich".  Ex.:  ata  to  eat,  ra 
straight,  lasa  to  read,  tra  wood. 

SHORT.  (2)  Short  a  has  the  corresponding  short 
sound.  Ex.:  agg  egg,  rati  right,  kanna  to  know. 
vauin')ia   (woman)  friend. 


§27  VOWELS  33 


o. 


21-  LONG.  (0  Long  b  has  the  sound  of  "6" 
in  German  "bbse".  It  may  be  produced  by  placing 
the  tongue  in  position  for  Swedish  c,  and  then  round- 
ing (and  slightly  protruding)  the  lips  so  that  the 
opening  is  moderately  small,  but  larger  than  for 
Swedish  y.  Ex.:  b  island,  bga  eye,  brbt  (from  bryta 
to  break),  mbta  to  meet,  do  to  die. 

Note.  —  Instead  of  this  sound,  the  long  sound  correspond- 
ing to  short  o  may  be  used  in  a  few  words,  especially  be- 
fore m,  n,  r,  and  the  supradentals,  and  (less  often)  after  r. 
Ex.:  skon  beautiful,  gron  green,  for  for,  hora  to  hear,  brbd 
bread,  sorter  (plur.  of  son  son). 

SHORT.  (2)  Short  b  has  the  sound  of  German 
"o"  in  "Gotler".  It  may  be  produced  by  placing 
the  tongue  in  position  for  Swedish  a,  and  rounding 
the  lips  (with  moderate  protrusion)  so  that  the  open- 
ing is  moderately  large.  Ex.:  bppen  open,  mjblk 
milk,  mbjlig  possible,  mbtt  (past  part,  of  mbta  to 
meet),    Vdxjb. 

28.  ORTHOGRAPHIC  REPRESENTATION  OF  THE 
SOUND  OF  A  AND  A.  (1)  The  sound  of  a,  normal- 
ly designated  by  a,  is  written  e  in  a  large  number 
of  words  when  short,  and  in  a  few  words  when 
long;  see  §  20,   2  and  4. 

(2)  The  sound  of  a,  normally  designated  by  d, 
is  written  o  in  a  large  number  of  words  when  short, 
and  in  many   words  when  long;  see  $  22,   2  and  4. 

29.  RELATION  OF  QUALITY  TO  QUANTITY.  The 
five  vowels  e,  i,  y,  a,  0  (that  is,  when  0  does  not 
represent  the  «-sound)  have  the  same  quality  of 
sound   whether  long  or  short;  as,   het    hot,    n.    licit. 


34  VOWELS  §  30 

vit  white,   n.   vitt;  ny  new,   n.   nytt;    rat   straight,  n. 
ratt;   bo  to  live,  supine  bolt. 

The  four  vowels  a,  u,  d,  0  have  a  different  quality 

of  sound  when  long  and  when  short,    this   even    in 

the  case  of  varying  vowel-quantity  in  different  forms 

of  the  same  word;  as,  glad  glad,  n.  glatt;  Gud  God, 

gen.    Guds;  bid  blue,   n.  bldtt;  sot  sweet,  n.  soil. 

Note.  —  But  when,  in  the  process  of  derivation,  a  long 
stressed  a,  u,  a,  or  6  has  become  unstressed  and  short,  it 
may  usually  retain  the  quality  of  the  long  vowel  (shortened) 
when  there  is  a  strong  feeling  of  association  with  the  word 
having  the  long  vowel;  as,  moble'ra  to  furnish,  cf.  model 
piece  of  furniture;  gjuterV  foundry,  cf.  gjuta  to  cast;  bageri' 
bakery,  cf.  bagare  baker;  malarin'na  (woman)  painter,  cf. 
malarc  painter. 

30-  THE  RELATION  OF  QUALITY  TO  SENTENCE- 
QUANTITY.  When,  owing  to  the  absence  of  sentence- 
stress,  long  a,  u,  a,  o  are  shortened,  they  may  either 
change  their  quality,  or  they  may  retain  the  original 
quality  (shortened)  on  account  of  the  influence  cf 
the  sound  in  the  word  when  stressed;  as,  ja  vis'st 
of  course,  hur  of'ta  how  often,  gd  hem'  to  go  home, 
do  bor't  to  die  away. 

31.  HARD  AND  SOFT  VOWELS.  The  vowels  are 
divided  into: 

(1)  Hard  vowels:  a,  0,  a,  u. 

(2)  Soft  vowels:  c,   z,  y,  ii,  o. 

This  distinction  is  of  great  importance  in  connec- 
tion with  the  pronunciation  of  g,  k,  sic,  followed  by 
a  vowel;  see  also  §  32. 

Note. — The  terms  "hard"  and  "soft"  vowels  are  to  be 
preferred  here  to  "back"  and  "front"  vowels;  long  u  was 
formerly,  but   is   not    now,  a  back   vowel.     For    the   sake   of 


§  32  VOWELS  35 

uniformity  I  employ  the  same  terms  also  in  §  32,  though 
the  phraseology  there  and  the  historical  point  of  view  would 
rather  suggest  the  use  of  the  terms  "front"  and  "back". 

32.  VOWEL-MODIFICATION.  In  the  older  form  of 
Swedish  the  hard  vowels  became  soft  vowels  under 
certain  conditions  in  various  words  and  word- forms. 
This  development  has  resulted  in  the  presence  in 
the  language  of:  (a)  inflectional  forms  of  the  same 
word,  some  with  a  hard  and  some  with  a  sold  vowel 
and  (b)  words  having  a  hard  vowel  related  to  words 
having  a  soft  vowel  (not  all  words  by  far,  however, 
that  now  contain  a  modified  vowel  can  be  connected, 
with  other  words  with  which  they  would  in  this 
way  be  related).  Vowel-modification  in  English  can 
be  seen  in  cases  like:  goose,  geese;  mouse,  mice; 
man,   men;  full,   fill;  fall   (intrans.),   fell   (trans.). 

The  vowels  that  in  Swedish  thus  correspond 
through  vowel-modification  are: 

J-  correspond  to  a 
d\ 

0  corresponds  to  b 
?i  corresponds  to  y 

Ex.:  hand  hand,  plur.  hander; gas  goose,  plur.  gass; 
son  son,  plur.  s'oner;  Idng  long,  compar.  and  superb 
langret  langst;  ung  young,  comp.  and  superl.  yngre, 
yngst;  valja  to  choose,  past  valde;  tang  heavy,  tyngd 
weight;  hus  house,  hysa  to  house;  full  full,  fylla  to 
fill;  /ova  to  promise,  Ibfte  promise;  ga  to  go,  gang- 
se  current;  fara  to  go,  fiird  trip;  varmldndsk  per- 
taining to  the  province    /  "armland. 

33.  In  the  preceding  paragraph  a  number  of  ex- 
amples    (beginning    with    tung:    tyngd)     have    been 


36  VOWELS  §  33 

given,  illustrating  the  connection  of  vowel-modifica- 
tion with  derivation.  There  are  also  examples  of  the 
three  inflectional  categories  that  to  a  limited  extent 
are  subject  to  the  principle  of  vowel-modification, 
namely:  (a)  the  comparison  of  certain  adjectives 
(for  the  list,  see  my  "Swedish  Grammar",  Lesson 
XII),  (b)  the  inflection  of  certain  verbs  of  the 
Second  Weak  Conjugation  (for  a  list  of  the  most 
important  of  these,  see  "Swedish  Grammar",  lyes- 
son  XV;  all  are  included  in  Appendix  IV  of  the 
Grammar),  and  (c)  the  formation  of  the  plural  of 
certain  nouns.  Here  follows  a  list  of  the  nouns  that 
modify  the  vowel  in  forming  the  plural;  a  few  of 
these  also  have  a  plural-form  without  modified  vowel 
(in  most  cases  with  a  meaning  and  declension  differ- 
ing from  that  of  the  plural  with  modified  vowel). 
The  six  nouns  bok,  fot,  rot,  gas,  lus,  mzis  both  mod- 
ify and  shorten  the  vowel,  plur.  backer,  f biter, 
totter,  gass,  loss,  moss.  The  vowel-modification  in 
lus,   mus  is  irregular. 

2  DECLENSION 
dotter  daughter 
moder  mother 

3  DECLENSION 
and  duck 

bok  book 
bonde  peasant 
brand  firebrand 
fot  {f otter  or  fot)   foot 
liciiid  hand 
land  (Hinder  or  .  country 


§   34  VOWELS,  DIPHTHONGS  37 

ledamo't  (stressed  vowel)  member 

natt  night 

rand  edge 

rot  root 

son  son 

spann   {spanner  or  spannar)  bucket 

spang  {sponger,  less  often  spdngar)  foot-bridge 

stad  city 

star    (staver  or  stavar)  stave;    bokstav  (-staver)  letter 

strand  shore 

stand  (stander  or  stand)  estate  (of   the  realm) 

stang  pole 

tand  tooth 

tang  tongs 

5  DECLENSION 

broder  brother 

fader  father 

gas  goose 

lus  (loss,  irregular)   louse 

man    (/nan  or  man)   man 

mus  (moss,  irregular)   mouse 

DIPHTHONGS. 

34.  Swedish  has  few  words  containing  diph- 
thongs, which  occur  chiefly  in  words  of  foreign 
origin.  Ex.:  ej  not,  nej  no,  inig  (usually  pronounced 
maj)  me,  kejsare  emperor,  tibjd  height,  pojke  boy, 
maj  May,  angus'ti  August,  automa'tisk  automatic, 
tautologi'  tautology,  auktorite't  authority,  auktio'n 
auction,  Paulus  Paul,  Euro' pa  Europe,  pseudony'm 
pseudonym,  eufemis'm  euphemism,  pneuma'tisk  pneu- 
matic. 


38  DIPHTHONGS,  CONSONANTS  §  35 

35.  The  diphthong  ej  is  pronounced  aj.  The  pro- 
nunciation of  the  others,  except  au  and  eu,  needs 
no  comment. 

Au  has  the  sound  of  short  a  +  short  u;  as,  pans  ' 
pause,  augus'ti  August.  In  some  common  words 
it  has  the  sound  of  long  a  (long  when  stressed) 
and  short  u,  distributed  over  two  syllables;  in  this 
case  it  is  of  course  not  a  diphthong;  as,  Paul.  A 
number  of  words  may  have  either  of  the  two  pro- 
nunciations mentioned.  In  some  words  of  Greek 
origin,  au  usually  has  the  sound  of  short  a  -f-  v 
(then  not  a  diphthong);  as,  automa'tisk  automatic, 
tautologi'  tautology. 

Eu  has  the  sound  of  short  a  +  short  u  or  short 
a  +  v  (in  the  latter  case  not  a  diphthong);  as, 
eufoni  euphony,  pseudony'm  pseudonym.  In  a  few 
common  words  it  usually  has  the  sound  of  c  (long 
when  stressed)  and  short  u,  distributed  over  two 
syllables  (then  not  a  diphthong);  as,  Euro' pa  Europe, 
neutrum  (sometimes  pron.  with  of)  neuter,  raima- 
tis'm  (this  usually  has  the  sound  of)  rheumatism. 

CONSONANTS. 

36.  SWEDISH  CONSONANTS  DIFFERING  IN  SOUND 
FROM  CORRESPONDING  ENGLISH  CONSONANTS. 

(i)  Swedish  r  is  pronounced  with  the  Up  of  the 
tongue  vibrating  (only  moderately)  against  the  rim 
of  the  paTalai-arch.  It  is  not  very  unlike  "r"  in 
"three",  but  should  be  carefully  distinguished  from 
the  ordinary  American  r-sound.  For  examples  of 
words  containing  r  and  the  other  sounds    discussed 


§    36  CONSONANTS  39 

in  this  paragraph,  see  under  the  individual    sounds 
below. 

(2)  The  Swedish  dentals,  d,  t,  /,  11,  s,  differ  in 
sound  from  the  corresponding  English  consonants. 
The.  Swedish  sounds  are  articulated  farther  toward 
the  front  of  the  mouth,  and  with  the  blade  of  the 
tongue.  In  the  case  of  /,  in  addition,  the  middle 
of  the  tongue  is  made  legs—  hollow  —in  Swedish. 
There  is  in  Sweden  some  diversity  in  the  manner 
of  production  of  the  dentals;  in  some  places  the  dif- 
ference in  sound  between  certain  of  the  Swedish 
dentals  and  the  corresponding  English  ones  is  min- 
imal. 

(3)  When  r  is  followed  by  a  dental  consonant, 
i.  e.,  in  the  combinations  rd,  rt,  rl,  rn,  rs,  it  com- 
bines with  the  dentals  into  sounds  called  supra- 
dentals.  which  are  articulated  farther  back  than  the 
English  dentals^with  the  tip  of  the  tongue.  The 
EnglisTSTdentals  are  accordingly  articulated  between 
the  Swedish  dentals  and  the  supradentals.  The 
sound  of  the  Swedish  supradentals  approaches  that 
of  our  dentals  when  preceded  by  the  American 
(cerebral)  "r"  (as  in  "heard",  "heart",  "barn", 
"verse"),  but  in  the  Swedish  sounds  no  r  is  heard. 
In  elevated  speech,  however,  a  weak  r  is  sometimes 
heard;  in  the  case  of  rl,  also  frequently  in  ordinary 
speech. 

(4)  The  Swedish  sound  that  corresponds  to  our 
sh-souud  should  be  carefully  distinguished  from  this. 
It  may  be  produced  by  combining  the  tongue- 
position  of  Swedish  supradental  5  with  that  of  a  sound 
lying  between  the  ch-sound    of    German    "Nachte" 


40  CONSONANTS  S  37 

and  of  "ich";  the  sound  is  very  often  a  little   labi- 
alized. 

Note.  —  Concerning  variation  in  the  pronunciation  of  some  t 
of  these  sounds,  see  §§  60-66. 

37-  VOICED  AND  VOICELESS  CONSONANTS.  Some 
consonant-sounds  (as  "f",  "s")  are  produced  by 
forcing  the  breath  through  a  much  narrowed  passage- 
way in  the  mouth,  the  narrowing  for  "f"  and  "s" 
being  made  at  different  places.  Such  sounds  are 
called  spirants.  In  the  production  of  certain  other 
consonants  (as  ^kLLu_Hp^,  "t")  there  is  a  complete 
closure  of  the  mouth-passage  (at  a  different  place 
for  each  of  the  three  sounds  mentioned)  and  for 
a  moment,  until  the  closure  is  released,  the 
breath-current  is  stopped;  such  sounds  are  known 
as  stops. 

But  another  spirant,  "v",  can  be  produced  with 
narrowing  at  the  same  place  as  for  "f",  and  simi- 
larly another,  "z",  with  the  same  narrowing  as  for 
"s";  so  also  three  other  stops,  "g",  "b",  "d",  can 
be  produced  with  closure  at  the  same  place  as  for 
"k",  "p",  "t".  In  a  very  important  respect  these 
new  sounds  are,  however,  very  different:  before  the 
breath-current  reaches  the  mouth,  it  squeezes  past 
the  vocal  chords  in  the  throat,  which  have  now 
been  brought  so  close  together  that  the  breath  in 
passing  them  causes  them  to  vibrate,  thus  producing 
voice.  These  ("v",  "z",  "g",  "b",  "d")  are 
called  voiced  sounds.  On  the  other  hand,  "f",  "s", 
"k",  "p",  "t",  which  are  produced  with  the  vo- 
cal chords  so  far  apart  that  the  breath  passes  by 
as  if  they  were  not  there,  are  called  voiceless. 


§38  CONSONANTS  4-1 

In  producing  the  voiceless  stops  "k",J^J_x  "t", 
there  is  at  the  place  of  closure  a  feeling  of  strong 
tenseness,  and  a  clearly  audible  "explosion"  takes 
place  as  the  closure  is  opened,  and  the  breath- 
current  released.  In  the  case  of  the  voiced  stops, 
however,  the  strength  of  the  breath-current  is  much 
weakened  in  forcing  its  way  past  the  vocal  chords, 
and  there  is  no  such  feeling  of  tenseness  at  the 
place  of  closure  as  with  the  voiceless  stops;  when 
the  breath-current  is  released,  it  is  very  weak,  and 
the  "explosion"   is  barely  audible. 

38-  ASSIMILATION.  There  is  in  Swedish  a  very 
strong  tendency  for  the  voiced  consonants^,  b,  d,  v 
to  become  voiceless  (k,  ft,  t,  f)  when  followed  by 
a  voiceless  sound  (usually  /or  s).  That  is,  the 
open  condition  of  the  vocal  chords  is  anticipated, 
and  the  preceding  consonant  in  this  respect  tends 
to  become  like  the  following  sound.  Very  often, 
however,  sounds  that  can  be  said  to  be  between  g 
and  k,  b  and/),  etc.,  are  used  instead;  the  sounds 
in  question  have  open  vocal  chords  in  common  with 
voiceless  consonants,  but  absence  of  tenseness  in 
common  with  voiced  consonants  (the  lack  of  tense- 
ness in  this  case  caused  by  a  breath-current  that  is 
weaker  in  its  inception).  In  ordinary  speech, 
k,  ft,  t,  f  are  heard  in  most  cases  of  the  kind  un- 
der consideration;  in  more  careful  speech,  however, 
the  intermediate  sound  is  employed  in  the  case  of 
many  words,  while  even  g,  b,  d,  v  are  sometimes 
heard  in  elevated  speech.  But  the  voiced  stop, 
when  followed  by  <r  as  an  inflectional  ending  (geni- 
tive and  passive)   usually  remains  in  all  these  forms 


42  CONSONANTS  §    38 

of  speech  when  a  long  vowel  precedes;  or,  the  vow- 
el is  shortened  (in  many  cases)  and  assimilation 
takes  place.  Ex.:  observe '  ra  to  observe,  Ibsen,  ab-. 
sol  n't  absolute,  substantiv  substantive,  Jakobs  Jacob's, 
snabbt  (n.  of  snabb  swift),  vigscl  marriage,  bogse'ra 
to  tow,  avlagsen  distant,  slagsmal  (vowel  shortened) 
fight,  halvvags  (vowel  short.)  half-way,  liigst  (from 
lag  low),  hur  dags  (vowel  short.)  at  what  time, 
tre  slags  (vowel  short.)  three  kinds  of,  till  skogs 
(vowel  short.)  to  the  woods,  byggs  (from  bygga  to 
build),  tryggt  (from  trygg  secure),  lagt  (from  lag 
low),  vagt  (from  veiga  to  weigh),  byggt  (from  byg- 
ga to  build),  nyttigt  (from  nyttig  useful),  ledsen 
sorry,  idka  to  carry  on,  lids  (vowel  short.)  nog 
time  enough,  till/reds  (vowel  short.)  satisfied,  styvt 
(from  styv  stiff),  akti'vt  (from  akti'v  active),  behbv's 
(vowel  short.;  from  behb'vas  to  be  necessary),  havsyta 
(vowel  short.)  surface   of  the  sea. 

Note.  —  Of  the  above  examples  some  employ  the  voiceless 
sound  much  more  freely  than  others;  in  some  instances  the 
voiceless  sound  is  practically  obligatory.  There  are,  further, 
a  few  cases  where  the  voiceless  sound  is  always  employed,  but 
owing  to  the  tmphonetic  orthography  is  nevertheless  written 
with  the  sign  for  a  voiced  sound;  as,  lagt  (from  lagga  to  lay), 
sagt  (from  saga  to  say),  bragie,  bragt  (from  bringa  to 
bring),  Guds  (vowel  shortened;  from  Cud  God),  gods  goods, 
hogt,  hdgst  (vowel  shortened;  from  hog  high). 

In  haft  (vowel  shortened;  from  hava  to  have)  the  voiceless 
sound  is  expressed  in  the  orthography.  The  assimilation  of 
d  before  /  is  regularly  taken  account  of  in  writing;  as,  gott 
(from  god  good),  bebot't  1  from  bebod'd  inhabited).  Similarly, 
in  derivatives,  the  voiceless  sound  is  written;  as,  shrift  writ- 
ing, cf.  skriva  to  write. 

In  the  past  tense  and  past  participle  of  the  Second  Weak 
Conjugation  there  is  assimilation  acting  in   the    opposite    di- 


§    39  CONSONANTS  43 

rection,  where  d  of'the  inflectional  ending  becomes  /  (writ- 
ten /)  when  preceded  by  a  voiceless  consonant;  as,  kopte,  kept 
(from  kopa  to  buy);  cf.  the  normal  byggde,   byggd  (from  byg- 

ga  to  build). 

THE  INDIVIDUAL.  CONSONANTS. 

Note.  —  In  the  following  account,  digraphs  and  trigraphs 
are  treated  under  the  first  letter  of  the  combinations. 

b. 

39.  B  is  pronounced  as  in  English.  Ex.:  bat 
boat,  bjuda  to  offer,  stab  staff,  snabb  swift,  gubbe 
old  man,  bomb  (final  b  not  silent)  bomb,  jubla  to 
exult. 

Note.  —  On  the  assimilation  of  b  before   /  and  s,  see  §  38. 


40.  (1)  Instead  of  kk,  Swedish  regularly  writes 
ck;  as,  icke  not,  vackla  to  totter,  tjockna  to  become 
thick,   rock  coat. 

Note.--  1.  In  one  word,  och  and,  double  k  is  written  ch; 
cf.  ock,  with  c/-,  meaning  "also". 

2.  Beyond  the  use  mentioned,  the  letter  c  is  employed 
only  in  words  of  foreign  origin  and  in  proper  names;  see 
below. 

(2)  C  has  the  sound  of  Swedish  s  (see  §  36,  2) 
when  followed  by  a  soft  vowel  (only  <?,  /',  y  occur 
in  this  case).  Ex.:  centra! I  central,  decern' bcr  De- 
cember, artiflciel'l  artificial,  multiplier ' ra  to  multiply, 
ocea'n  ocean,  cirka  about,  cykel  cycle,  Cederschiold ', 
Celan'der,    C  \ dsius . 

(3)  C  has  the  sound  of  k  when  followed  by  an- 
other c  (pronounced  s;  see  §  36,  2).  Ex.:  accen't 
accent,  accepte'ra  to  accept,   vacci'n  vaccine. 


44  CONSONANTS  §   41 

Note.  —  In  some  proper  names,  c  followed  by  a  hard  vow- 
el or  a  consonant  (other  than  c)  occurs;  it  then  also  has 
the  sound  of  k;  as,  Nican'der,  Carl  (generally  spelled 
Karl),  Creutz. 

(4)  Ch  (except  in  the  word  och  and;  see  §  40,  1, 
note  1)  is  used  only  in  loan-words  and  proper  names; 
it  has  the  sound  of  sj  (see  §  36,  4,  and  §  53,  3). 
Ex.:  chokla'd  chocolate,  champinjo'n  mushroom,  chi- 
ka'n  disgrace,    Chariot' ta. 

Note.  —  1.  In  some  proper  names,  ch  has  the  sound  of 
k;  as,  Chorcz'us,  Chrysan'der. 

2.  In  addition  to  the  use  of  the  letter  c  as  presented 
above,  it  occurs  in  the  combinations  sc  and  sch;  see  under  5. 


41.  (1)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  d,  see 
§  36,  2.  Ex.:  du  you,  bada  to  bathe,  hundra 
hundred,  a  Id  rig  never,  hedra  to  honor,  ladda  to  load, 
fid  time,    bragd  feat,  foljd   consequence,    vild  wild. 

Note.  —  On  the  assimilation  of  d  before  t  and  s,  see  §  3S. 

(2)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  rd,  see  §  36, 
3.  Ex.:  hard  hard,  viirde  worth,  horde,  hord  (from 
hbra  to  hear),  orden'tlig  orderly,    bord  table. 

(3)  Initial  d  is  silent  when  followed  by  j.     Ex.: 

djur  animal,  djup  deep,  djavul  devil,  djarv  bold.    So 

also  at   the    beginning    of  a  posterior   component    it 

is  of  course  silent;  as,  husdjur  domestic  animal. 

Note.  —  D  is  silent,  or,  in  some  instances,  usually  silent, 
in  cases  like:  didst  oldest,  bradska  hurry,  skridsko  skate, 
handske  glove,  irddgard  orchard,  v auditing  turning. 

f. 

42.  F  is  pronounced  as  in  English.  Ex.:  fa  to 
get,  /ran  from,  fjader  feather,   haft    (from    hava    to 


§  43  CONSONANTS  45 

have),  trdffa  tc  meet,  fotogra'f  photographer,    nymf 
nymph,  si  off  stuff. 

Note.  —  In  some  proper  names,  f  and  fv  have   the    sound 
of  v;  as,  Lagerlof,  Silfverstolpe. 

g. 

43-   (0   £  has  the  sound  of  Swedish  j  (see  §45,  1): 

(a)  Before  stressed  soft  vowels  and  before  un- 
stressed soft  vowels  preceding  the  main  stress.  Ex.: 
giva  to  give,  gass  (from  gas  goose),  gick,  gingo 
(from  ga  to  go),  g'dra  to  do,  begyn'na  to  begin, 
egeii'tlig  real,  igen'  again,  Gotcbor'g  Gothenburg, 
gemis  gender,  gestal't  figure,  gcnera'l  general,  unge- 
fa'r  about,  forgo! ves  in  vain,  Gcijcr.  So  also  in  the 
posterior  components  of  compound  words,  though 
they  do  not  have  the  main  stress  of  the  word;  as, 
missgynna  to  disfavor. 

(b)  Usually  after  /  and  r.  Ex.:  berg  mountain, 
fiirg  color,  sorg  sorrow,  Sverge  Sweden,  Norge  Nor- 
way, ialg  tallow,  svalg  throat. 

Note.  —  Iu  some  words,  g  may  have  either  this  sound  or 
that  of  5,  below;  as,  gi/ar'r  guitar,  logi'k  logic,  agen't  agent, 
tcologi'  theology,  legen'd  legend,  origina'l  original,  sigil'l 
(rarely  the  g  of  5)  seal,  intelligen't  intelligent,  margina'l 
margin,  kirur'g  (almost  always  the  sound  of  5)  surgeon. 

(2)  G  has  the  sound  of  sj  (see  §  53,  3,  and  §  36, 
4)  before  the  soft  vowels  e  and  i  in  a  number  of 
words  of  foreign  origin.  Ex.:  gad'  genius,  passa- 
ge'rare  passenger,  fotoge'n  kerosene,  ingenib'r  engi- 
neer, tragedi'  tragedy,  redige'ra  to  edit,  genti'l  (pron. 
sjangti'l)  genteel.  In  a  few  words,  in  addition,  a 
following  e  is  silent  (this  is  an  exception  to  the 
note  preceding  §   19);    as,    sergcan't  sergeant,    was- 


46  CONSONANTS  §  43 

sa'ge  massage,    loge    (theater)    box,    lodge,    ekipa'ge 
equipage. 

(3)  G  usually  has  the  sound  of  Swedish  ng  (see 
§  49,  4)  when  followed  by  u,  this  gn  being  pro- 
nounced ngn.  Ex.:  vagn  wagon,  regno,  to  rain, 
logn  lie,  in  hog' 'nito  incognito,  signa'l  signal,  magne't 
magnet,    Tegnir. 

Note.  —  In  the  cases  under  (3),  the  preceding  vowel  is 
short,  which  is  regular.  But  note  the  sound  of  g  followed 
by  the  sound  of  n  in  mogna  (from  mogen  ripe),  tnogna  to 
ripen  (cf.  mogen  ripe),  egna  (from  egen  own).  Observe 
that  in  these  cases  the  vowel  is  long. 

(4)  G  is  silent  in  the  initial  combination  gj,  which 
occurs  in  very  few  words,  and  only  before  a  hard 
vowel.  Ex.:  gjorde  (from  gora  to  do),  gjuta  to 
cast.  So  also  at  the  beginning  of  posterior  com- 
ponents of  compounds. 

Note.  — -1.  G  is  also  silent  in  morgnar  (from  morgan 
morning). 

2.  Initial  g  followed  by  11  is  not  silent  in  Swedish;  as, 
gnaga  to  gnaw. 

(5)  Except  when  pronounced  as  above  indicated, 
g  has  the  sound  of  "g"  in  "go";  that  is,  (a)  be- 
fore hard  vowels  and  consonants  (except  j,  and, 
usually,  n)  and  when  doubled,  (b)  before  unstressed 
soft  vowels  that  follow  the  main  stress,  (c)  finally 
(except  after  /  and  r).  Ex.:  gav  (from  giva  to  give, 
which  has  the  sound  of  Swedish/),  gets  goose  (but 
cf.  plur.  gdss,    with  J),    get    to    go    (but    cf.    gick, 

gingo,  with  /),    god  good,  glas  glass,   tigga  to  beg, 

segcl  sail,  fattig  poor,  egen  own,  dag  day. 

Note.  —  Concerning  the  assimilation  of  g  before  t  and  s, 
see  §  38. 


§  44  CONSONANTS  47 


44.  (0  //is  pronounced  as  in  English.  Ex.: 
han  he,  hits  house. 

(2)  Initial  h  is  silent  when  followed  by  j.  Ex.: 
hjarta  heart,  hjdlpa  to  help,  hjul  wheel,  Hjalmaren, 
Hjalmar.  So  also  at  the  beginning  of  posterior  com- 
ponents of  compounds;   as,  ihja'l  to  death. 

j. 

45.  (1)  /  has  approximately  the  sound  of  Eng- 
lish "y"  in  "yes".  Ex.: /a  yes,  nej  no,  bjuda  to 
offer,  njuta  to  enjoy,  mjuk  soft,  fjarde  fourth,  fa- 
mil'j  family,  kastan'j  chestnut,  spjut  spear,  hbljd 
(from  holja  to  cover). 

Note.  —  After  a  vowel,  j  is  always  long,  though  never 
written  double;  see  §  14  A  1. 

(2)  In  some  words  of  foreign  origin,  j  has  the 
sound  of  sj  (see  §  53,  3,  and  §  36,  4).  Ex.:  jour- 
no!  I  journal,  juste ' ra  to  adjust,  projek't  project,  jas- 
min jasmine. 

(3)  Concerning  the  combinations  dj,  gj,  //j,  kj, 
/j,  sj,  tj,  skj,  stj,  xi  (xj),  see  under  the  first  letter 
in  each  case. 

k.  jr 

4G.  (1)  K  has  the  sound  of  Swedish  tj  (see  §  54, 
3)  before  stressed  soft  vowels  and  before  unstressed 
soft  vowels  preceding  the  main  stress.  Ex.:  kyrka 
church,  kar  dear,  k'dpa  to  buy,  kateke's  catechism, 
kine's  chinaman,  kirur'g  surgeon,  kemi'  chemistry, 
kejsare  emperor,  Kbpenham'n  Copenhagen,  Kellgren. 
So  also  in  posterior  components  of  compound  words, 


48  CONSONANTS  §  47 

though  they  do  not    have    the    main    stress    of    the 
word. 

(2)  Otherwise  k  has  the  sound  of  English  "k"; 
that  is,  (a)  before  hard  vowels  and  consonants  (ex* 
cept  j;  see  3,  below)  and  when  doubled,  (b)  before 
unstressed  e  and  i  in  final  syllables,  (e)  when  final. 
Ex.:  ko  cow,  kunna  to  be  able,  sko  shoe,  Mar  clear, 
kvinna  woman,  skriva  to  write,  vikt  weight,  rike 
kingdom,  tekni'k  technics,  rak  straight. 

Note— 1.  Some  words,  almost  exclusively  of  foreign  origin, 
have  the  latter  sound,  where  the  sound  of  Swedish  tj  would 
be  expected.  Ex.:  anarki'  anarchy,  banket't  banquet,  buket't 
bouquet,  kisse  pussy,  ko  file,  line,  kor  choir,  fabriko'r 
manufacturer,  banki'r  banker,  stake't  fence.  A  few  may 
have  either  the  sound  of  k  or  that  of  tj;  as,  kilogram'  kilo- 
gram, arki'v  archives,  k&x  biscuit,  arkitek't  architect. 

2.  Long  k  is  written  ck;  cf.  §  40,    1. 

3.  Initial  k  followed  by  11  is  not  silent  in  Swedish;  as,  kniv 
knife,  knci  knee. 

(3)  Ay,  which  occurs  in  very  few  words,  and 
only  before  a  hard  vowel,  has  the  sound  of  Swedish 
tj  (see  §  54.  3)-     Ex.:  kjortel  (or  kjol)  skirt. 

1. 

47.  (1)  On  the  pronunciation  of  /  see  §  36,  2. 
Ex.:  lata  to  let,  tala  to  speak,  alia  all,  moln  cloud, 
malm  ore,  glas  glass,  kallna  to  grow  cold,  dal  val- 
ley,  tall  pine. 

(2)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  ;7,  see  §  36,  3. 
Ex.:  parla  pearl,  farlig  dangerous,  Karlstad.  Cf. 
3,   note,  below. 

(3)  Initial  /.is  silent  when  followed  by  /.  Ex.: 
Ijnd  sound,  ljus  light,  ljuga  to  lie,  ljuv  sweet,  ljung 


§  48  CONSONANTS  49 

heather,  Ljungan,  Ljusnan,  Ljunggren.  The  same 
rule  applies  to  posterior  components  of  compound 
words. 

Note. — L  is  silent  in  v&rld  world,  and  karl  man.  In  the 
proper  name  Karl,  I  is  not  silent,  but  in  this  case  r  is  very 
often  silent;  the  /  then  becomes  dental  (or,  to  be  more  exact, 
dental  /  is  in  this  word  often  substituted  for  supradental  I; 
see  §  36,  2  and  3). 

m. 

48-  M  has  the  sound  of  English  m.  Ex.:  mjolk 
milk,  mamma  mamma,  malm  ore,  dogm  dogma, 
rymd  space. 

Note. — In  words  of  foreign  origin,  final  in  becomes  voice- 
less when  preceded  by  voiceless  t  or  s;  this  is  a  sound  strange 
to  English  and  consists  simply  of  a  breath  through  the  nose 
with  the  lips  closed,  and  without  vibration  of  the  vocal 
chords.  Ex.:  rytm  rhythm,  sarkas'm  sarcasm,  fanatis'm 
fanaticism,  schism  schism,  reumatis'm  rheumatism.  But 
when,  in  inflected  forms  of  these  words,  a  vowel  follows,  the 
normal  (voiced)  m  is  used;  as,  rytmen,  schismer.  So  also 
when  another  word  immediately  following  in  the  sentence 
begins  with  a  vowel;  as,  reumatis'm  i  ryggen  rheumatism 
in  the  back. 

n. 

49.  (1)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  n,  see 
§  36,  2.  Ex.:  natt  night,  annan  other,  njuta  to 
enjoy,  fnysa  to  sniff,  snb  snow,  moln  cloud,  frysa 
to  freeze,   namn  name,  sann  true,   vin  wine. 

Note. — 1.  Concerning  the  orthographic  designation  of 
long  n,  see  §  18,  b. 

2.  N  is  usually  silent  when  preceded  by  m  or  ng  and 
followed  by  d,  t,  or  s.  Ex.:  lugnt  (pron.  lungt;  from  lugn 
calm),  namnde,  namnt  (from  niimna  to  mention ),jdmnl  (from 
jamn  even),  hamnd  revenge,  ugnsdorr    (pron.    ungs-)    oven 


50  CONSONANTS  §  49 

door,    vagnshjul    (pron.     vangs-)    wagon    wheel,    namnsdag 
name-day,  regnskur  (pron.  rengskur)  shower. 

(2)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  m,  see 
§36,  3.  Ex.:  barn  child,  jam  iron,  skorna  (def, 
plur.  of  sko  shoe),  bockerna  (def.  plur.  of  bok  book), 
Vat  tern. 

(3)  N  is  pronounced  like  the  digraph  ng  (see  4, 
below): 

(a)  When  followed  by  k,  as  in  English.  Ex.: 
tanka  to  think,  dunkel  dark,  vinka  to  beckon, 
banket 7  banquet,  konkur's  (pron.  also  with  the  sound 
of  ri)  bankruptcy,  konkre't  (pron.  also  with  11)  con- 
crete. 

(b)  In  many  words  of  foreign  origin,  n  has  the 
sound  of  ng  when  followed  by  any  consonant  (ex- 
cept ri)\  en  followed  by  a  consonant  is  in  this  case 
pronounced  ang.  Ex.:  annon's  advertisement,  pen- 
sion (pron.  pangsjo'ri)  pension,  elegan't  (pron.  also 
with  w)  elegant,  gi -n ti'l  (pron.  sjangti'l)  genteel, pensi 
pansy,  intressan'f  (pron.  also  with  n)  interesting, 
plansch  (pron.  also  with  11)  picture,  koine  rt  (pron. 
also  with  11)  concert,  arrange ' ra  (pron.  arangsje'ra) 
to  arrange.  But  not  all  such  words  have  this  sound; 
the  sound  of  n  is  used,  for  example,  in  intelligent 
intelligence,  konsekven's  consistency. 

(4)  Ng  has  the  sound  of  "ng"  in  "sing",  "sing- 
ing" (but  not  as  in  English  "finger",  which  is 
"ngg").  Ex.:  ingen  no  one,  finger  finger,  sang 
song,  /con/nig  king,  engelsk  English,  talang'  talent, 
salong'  saloon   (room). 

Note. — Ng  rarely  has  other  sounds:  ngg  (as  singula'r 
or sin'gular  singular,  funge'ra  to  officiate);  nj  (as  evange'lium 


§    50  CONSONANTS  5r 

gospel,     ungef&'r    about);     ngg    or     nj     (as     tangen't    key, 
finge'ra  to  feign). 

P- 

50.  P  has  the  sound  of  English  "p".  Ex.:  pa 
on,  pcppar  pepper,  pipa  pipe,  asp  trembling  poplar, 
lapp  patch,  piece,  pjunk  squeamishness,  spela  to 
play. 

Note.  — I.  Initial  p  followed  by  n  is  not  silent  in  Swedish; 
as,  pncuma'tisk  pneumatic. 

2.  Initial  p  followed  by  5  is  silent  in  psalm  psalm,  and 
psaltare  psalter,  but  it  is  pronounced  in  Psilan'der.  In 
pseudony'm  pseudonym,  and  psykologi'  psychology,  />  may 
be  pronounced,  or  it  may  be  silent. 

3.  Ph,  with  the  sound  of/,  occurs  in  a  few  proper  names; 
as,  Josephson.  Beyond  this,  ph  does  not  occur;  aoteplosop1 
philosophy. 

q. 

51.  Q  has  the  sound  of  k;  it  occurs  only  in  proper 
names,  followed  by  v  (u).  Ex.:  Qvarnstr'dm,  Alm- 
qvist. 

r. 

52.  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  Swedish  r, 
see  §  36,  1.  Ex.:  rod  red,  vrida  to  turn,  skriva  to 
write,  tre  three,  fyra  four,  stirra  to  stare,  narr 
fool,  storm  storm,  bar  bare,  oster  east,  hundra 
hundred. 

Note. — 1.  Concerning  the  frequently  silent  r  in   Karl,  see 

§  47-  3.  »ote- 

2.  Concerning  silent  r  in  connection  with  supradentals, 
see  §  36,  3. 

3.  Rh,  with  the  sound  of  /',  occurs  in  a  few  proper  names; 
as,  Arrhe'niuSy  Rhodi'n, 


52  CONSONANTS  §   53 

s. 

53.  (i)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  s,  see 
§  36,  2.  Ex.:  se  to  see,  skriva  to  write,  skvalpa 
to  splash,  svin  pig,  spjut  spear,  polsk  Polish,  poll's 
police,  passa  to  suit,  slcksack  zigzag,   inrikes  inland. 

Note. —  Swedish  s  never  has  the  sound  of  "z",  as  very 
often  in  English.  Sp  and  st  are  never  pronounced  "schp", 
"scht",  as  they  are  in  German. 

(2)  On  the  pronunciation  of  rs,  see  §  36,  3. 
Ex.:  vers  verse,  stbrst  (from  stor  large),  mors  (from 
mor  mother),  gosscirs  (from  gosse  boy),  sommars 
(from  sommar  summer),  Jibrs  (from  libra    to    hear). 

(3)  ►S/V  concerning  the  pronunciation  of  this,  see 
§  36,  4.  Ex.:  sjb  lake,  sju  seven,  sjalv myself ,  himself 
(etc.). 

(4)  Sk  has  the  sound  of: 

(a)  sj  before  stressed  soft  vowels  (and  unstressed 
soft  vowels  preceding  the  main  stress,  of  which 
there  are  very  few  cases).  Ex.:  sice  to  happen, 
skbn  beautiful,  skilja  to  separate,  skdra  to  cut, 
skynda  to  hurry,  maski'n  machine.  The  same  is 
true  in    posterior  components   of    compound    words. 

(b)  s-\-k  otherwise,  i.  e.,  (aa)  before  hard  vowels 
and  consonants  (except  j;  see  5  below);  (bb)  before 
unstressed  soft  vowels  in  final  syllables;  (cc)  when 
final.  Ex.:  sko  shoe,  skada  to  hurt,  skriva  to  write, 
lysk  German,  handskc  glove,  flasket  the  pork,  slaskig 
sloppy,  skar  (from  skdra  to  cut,   with  sj-) . 

Note. — Sic  has  the  sound  of  sj  in  a  few  words  where, 
according  to  the  rules  given,  the  sound  sk  would  be  expected; 
as,  manniska  human  being,  marskal'k  marshal.  Kanske 
(pron.  with  sj)  perhaps,  is  a  compound. 


§  54  CONSONANTS 


Do 


On  the  olher  hand,  s'c  has  in  a  few  words  the  sound  of 
sk  instead  of  sj;  as,  konjiske'ra  to  confiscate,  riske'ra  to 
risk,  skiss  sketch,  skeptisk  (s/c  or  sj)  skeptical,  skelet't 
(rarely  with  sj)  skeleton. 

(5)  Skji  which  occurs  in  a  few  words  before  a  hard 
vowel,  has  the  sound  of  sj.  Ex.:  skjorta  shirt, 
skjuta  to  shoot. 

(6)  Stj  has  the  sound  of  sj.  Ex.:  stjdrna  star, 
stjala  to  steal. 

(7)  Sch  has  the  sound  of  sj.  Ex.:  schal  shawl, 
schema  schedule,  scharla'kan  scarlet,  schaslong'  couch, 
plansch  picture,  broschy'r  pamphlet,  manschet't  cuff, 
galosch!  rubber,  musta'sch  mustache,  marsch  march, 
schism  schism. 

(8)  Sc  has  the  sound  of:  (a)  ^  (as  seen  scene); 
(b)  sj  (as  krcsccii  do  crescendo);  (c)  s  or  sj  (as 
rekognosce  ra  to  reconnoitre,  konvalescen't  convalescent, 
reminiscen' s  reminiscence,  discip'c/  disciple,  discipli'n 
discipline. 

(9)  Si,  ssi  have  the  sound  of  sj.  Ex.:  divisio'n 
division,  pensio'n  pension,  missio'n  mission,  assiet't 
(pron.  with  sj  or  si)  small  plate.  Note  that  Asien 
is  pronounced  with  si. 

t. 

54.  (1)  On  the  pronunciation  of  /,  see  §  36,  2. 
Ex.:  tio  ten,  sta  to  stand,  hatt  hat,  ha  fa  to  hate, 
tea'ter  theater,   Ate'n  Athens,   tsar  czar. 

Note. — 1.  In  a  few  words,  /  may  he  silent;  as,  kuve'rt  en- 
velope, konse'rt  concert,  desse'rt  dessert. 

2.  T/i,  occurring  in  proper  nouns,  has  the  sound  of  /;  as, 
Thorild,  Boe'thius,  Luther  (hut  ohserve  that  lutcrsk  and  lu- 
tera'n  are  spelled  with  /). 


54  CONSONANTS  §   55 

(2)  Concerning  the  pronunciation  of  rt,  see  §36,  3. 
Ex.:  hjiirta  heart,  fort  fast,  start  (from  stor  large), 
gjort  (from  gbra  to  do),  fartyg  vessel,  borta  away, 
vackert  (n.  of  vacker  pretty). 

(3)  7y  has  approximately  the  same  sound  as 
English  "ch".  Ex.:  tjugu  twenty,  tjana  to  serve, 
tjock  thick,  tjuv  thief. 

(4)  77,  followed  by  a    vowel,    has    three    sounds: 

(a)  When  followed  by  o  and  preceded  by  any 
consonant  except  r,  ti  has  the  sound  of  sj.  Ex.: 
lektio'n  lesson,  auktio'n  auction,  direktio'n  direction, 
subskriptio  n  subscription . 

(b)  When  followed  by  0  and  preceded  by  a  vowel 
or  r,  ti  has  the  sound  of  /  +  sj.  Ex.:  nattin  nation, 
statio'n  station,  motio'n  exercise,  portio'n  portion. 
In  a  number  of  words  either  tsj  or  sj  is  used;  as, 
rekommendatio' n  recommendation,  emigratio'n  emi- 
gration, addition  addition,  revolution,  revolution. 

(c)  When  followed  by  a  or  e,  ti  has  the  sound 
of  tsi.  Ex.:  initiati'v  initiative,  initia'l  initial,  pro- 
feti'a  prophesy,  justif ieminister  minister  of  justice. — 
Aktie  share,  is  usually  pronounced  aksie;  patient 
patient,  and  licentia't  licentiate,  may  be  pronounced 
pasicn't,  lisensia't,   or  regularly. 

Note. —  The  proper  name  Fritiof  is  pronounced  fritjof. 

V. 

55.  V  has  the  sound  of  English  v.  Ex.:  vi  we, 
vela  to  know,  svag  weak,  kvist  twig,  tva  two,  dvdrg 
dwarf,  tolv  twelve. 

Note.— Concerning  the    assimilation   of   v   before   t   and    s, 
see  §  38. 


§  56  CONSONANTS     •  55 


w. 


56.  W,  which  occurs  only  in  a  few  proper  names, 
and  in  words  derived  from  these,  has  the  sound  of 
v.  Ex.:  JValli'n,  Wrangel,  Schweiz  Switzerland, 
sckweizeri'  cafe. 


57-    (0  A' usually  has  the  sound    of   long    k-\~s. 

Ex.:     sex  six,  lax  salmon,  oxe  ox,    vaxa    to    grow. 

Note. — Care  should  be  taken  not  to  give  x  the  sound  of 
"gz"  (as  frequently  in  English  when  preceding  the  main 
stress),  for  instance,  in  cxa'men     examination,  exak't  exact. 

(2).  Initial  x  has  the  sound  of  hs  or  .<r.  Ex.:  xy- 
logra'f  xylographer,   Xcnofon,  Xaniip'pa,   Xerxes. 

(3)  Xi  (xj)  has  the  sound  of  k  +  sj.  Ex.:  re- 
flexio'n  reflection,  anncxio'n  annexation,    Vaxjb. 

z. 

58.  (1)  Z,  which  is  of  infrequent  occurrence,  has 
the  sound  of  Swedish  s.  Ex.:  zige'nare  gipsy,  zink 
zinc,  zon  zone,  zoologi'  zoology,  Afze'lhis,  BerzeUms, 
Creutz ,  Fra  nzen . 

(2)  Z  has  the  sound  of  ts  in  Schweiz  Switzerland, 
and  in  words  derived  from  this. 

59-     SUMMARIES   RELATING   TO   CONSONANTS: 

(1)  The  distinction  between  hard  and  soft  vowels 
is  of  importance  in  connection  with  the    pronuncia 
tion  of  g,  k,  sk,   and,   to  a  limited  extent,  e. 

(2)  The  combinations  gj,  kj,  skj  have  the  same 
sound  as  g,  k,  sk  followed  by  front  vowels. 

(3)  Initial  d,  /it  /,  and  g  are  silent  when  followed 

by  j. 


56  CONSONANTS  §   59 

(4)  G,  b,  d,  v  usually  become  k,  p,  t,  f  wheu  fol- 
lowed by  /  or  s. 

(5)  Rd,  rt,  rl,  rn,  rs  have  each  a  single  sound, 
that  of  the  supradentals;  no  r  is  heard. 

(6)  Swedish  consonants  that  have  sounds  differ- 
ing materially  from  the  corresponding  English 
sounds  are:  r,  sj,  the  dentals  (d,  t,  I,  n,  s),  and  the 
supradentals. 

(7)  The  following  combinations  always  have  the 
sound  of  sj:  sj,  s/cj,  stj,  sch,  si,  ssi,  ch  (practically 
always);  the  following  letters  and  combinations 
sometimes  have  the  sound  of  sj:  sk,  g  (ge),  j,  sc,  ti. 
—  Of  the  letters  and  combinations  representing  the 
.sy-sound,  only  sj,  skj,  stj,  sk  are  used  in  words  of 
native  origin;  sch,  ch,  g  (gc),  j,  sc,  st,  ssi,  ti  occur 
only  in  words  of  foreign  origin. 

(8)  The  following  always  denote  ^:  s,  z  (almost 
always),  x  (including  k;  almost  always);  the  fol- 
lowing sometimes  denote  s:  c,  sc,  x  (rarely),  /  (in 
the  combination  ti,   rarely). 

(9)  The  following  always  denote  the  //'-sound:  tj, 
kj;  the  following  sometimes  denotes  tj:  k. 

(10)  The  following  always  denotes  the  ;^-sound: 
ng  (practically    always);    the    following   sometimes: 

(11)  The  following  always  denote  the  Swedish 
y-sound:  initial  dj,  hj,  If,  gj;  the  following  sometimes 

do:  j  (usually),  g. 

(12)  The  following  always  denotes  the  ^-sound: 
q;  the  following  sometimes:  k,  c,  ch  (rarely).  — 
L,ong  k  is  represented  by  ck,  ch   (in  och). 


§   60  UNIFORMITY  OF  PRONUNCIATION  57 

(13)  The  following  always  denote  the  z'-sound: 
v,  w. 

UNIFORMITY  OF  PRONUNCIATION. 

GO-  There  are  in  Sweden  a  large  number  of  dia- 
lects, even  the  people  of  adjoining  parishes  often 
differing  noticeably  in  their  speech.  The  small 
dialect-divisions  group  themselves  naturally  into 
larger  groups,  and  so  it  happens  that  the  language  of 
Southern  and  Western  Sweden  shows  certain  ten- 
dencies of  pronunciation  differing  from  the  language 
as  spoken  in  Central  and  Northern  Sweden. 

The  ideal  of  good  uniform  Swedish  is  called  "riks- 
sprak".  As  far  as  the  written  language  is  concerned, 
the  "rikssprak"  is  in  all  essentials  a  reality.  In 
the  spoken  language  there  is,  particularly  in  re- 
cent years,  a  growing  tendency  toward  uniformity, 
most  of  all,  of  course,  in  the  cities;  but  even  the 
cultured  to  a  large  extent  speak  a  form  of  Swedish 
that  in  some  degree  .shows  traces  of  their  own  par- 
ticular (larger)  dialect-group. 

As  each  of  the  large  divisions  mentioned  repre- 
sents a  large  part  of  the  total  population,  it  is  in 
some  cases  difficult  to  decide  which  of  two  varying 
pronunciations  should  be  said  to  belong  to  the  "riks- 
sprak". 

It  is  clear,  then,  that  there  is  no  absolutely  rigid 
norm  of  correct  spoken  Swedish.  While  the  uni- 
formity is  great  enough,  it  is  not  unnecessarily 
pressed,  leaving  room  for  a  sufficient  amount  of  indi- 
viduality.    Indeed,  with  regard  to  a  number  of  mat- 


58  UNIFORMITY  OF  PRONUNCIATION  §  6l 

ters,  two  (sometimes  more)  different  pronunciations 
are  recognized  as  equally  good,  only  as  being  char- 
acteristic of  different  sections  of  the  country.  Even 
in  the  case  of  the  individual  sounds  there  is  in  a 
number  of  instances  considerable  freedom  of  choice 
between  two  differing  pronunciations,  the  free- 
dom of  choice  varying  somewhat  with  the  dif- 
ferent sounds  in  question.  Here  follows  an  account 
of  the  most  important  sounds  of  this  kind,  in  vary- 
ing degree  considered  dialectic,  though  not  in  all 
cases  considered  dialectic  })y  all  scholars,  and  to  a 
considerable  extent  (varying  somewhat  with  the  dif- 
ferent sounds)  employed  by  educated  Swedes. 

61.  A  AND  6  BEFORE  R.  In  the  greater  part  of 
Sweden  the  sounds  of  a  (written  also  e)  and  b,  both 
long  and  short,  become  more  open  when  followed 
by  r;  but  before  r  standing  alone  these  open  sounds 
are  less  widespread  than  before  r  followed  by  a  con- 
sonant. This  open  sound  of  a  lies  midway  between 
the  "e"  of  "met"  and  the  "a"  of  "mat".  The 
open  sound  of  b  may  be  produced  by  placing  the 
tongue  in  position  for  the  open  sound  of  a,  and 
rounding  the  lips  (with  moderate  protrusion)  so 
that  the  opening  is  large.  Ex.:  jam  iron,  svdrd 
sword,  piirla  pearl,  vdrre  worse,  hjdrta  heart,  vdrk 
pain,  vers  verse,  herre  gentleman,  verk  work,  Sverge 
Sweden,  perso'u  person,  brn  eagle,  Ibrdag  Saturday, 
brt  herb,  dorr  door,  bbrja  to  begin,  fbrst  first,  mark 
dark. 

62-  E  AND  A.  In  large  parts  of  Central  and  North- 
ern Sweden,  e  (the  sound  of  §  20,  I  and  3),  both 
long  and  short,  has  changed  into  a  sound  lying  be- 


§  63  UNIFORMITY  UP  PRONUNCIATION  59 

tween  Swedish  e  and  a,  and  in  considerable  parts 
of  this  general  region,  a  (both  long  and  short)  has 
changed  into  this  same  intermediate  sound.  In  .some 
places,  notably  in  Stockholm,  both  these  changes 
have  taken  place;  there  no  distinction  is  made  be- 
tween the  sound  of  e  and  of  a,  but  each  is  pro- 
nounced with  a  sound  lying  between  both. 

63.  R.  In  Southern  Sweden,  r  is  pronounced  with 
articulation  far  back  in  the  mouth,  either  as  a  spi- 
rant produced  between  the  back  portion  of  the  tongue 
and  the  soft  palate,  or,  a  trifle  farther  back  pro- 
duced through  the  vibration  of  the  uvula  between 
the  tongue  and  the  palate.  Both  these  varieties  of 
back  r  are  usually  employed  by  one  and  the  same 
individual,  the  uvular  r  representing  more  careful 
and  distinct  speech  than  the  spirant. 

In  the  more  northerly  portion  of  Southern  Swe- 
den both  the  back  and  the  front  r  (that  of  $36,  1) 
are  employed  by  the  same  individual,  the  back  r 
being  used  only  initially,  and,  when  long,  between 
vowels  and  finally  (as  in  rod  red,  surr  buzz,  surra 
to  buzz).  In  words  where  a  second  r  occurs,  but 
in  a  different  position  from  those  mentioned,  both 
r-sounds  are  in  this  case  employed  in  the  same  word. 

In  that  part  of  Southern  Sweden  where  the  back 
r  is  used  exclusively,  there  are  no  supradentals; 
here  back  r  is  pronounced,  followed  by  the   dentals. 

64-  Tj.  In  place  of  the  affricate  (=  stop  followed 
by  the  corresponding  spirant)  £/-sound,  the  spi- 
rant alone  is  employed  in  a  large  part  of  Central 
Sweden  and  in  the  northerly  portion  of  Southern 
Sweden,  the  stop  being  omitted.     Medially  before  a 


60  UNIFORMITY  OU  PRONUNCIATION  §  65 

stressed  vowel  (as  in  arki'v  archives,  betjlin't  ser- 
vant) the  spirant  is  used  even  by  some  who  in 
other  cases  employ  the  affricate. 

Normally  the  spirant  mentioned,  both  as  contained 
in  the  affricate  and  as  pronounced  alone,  is  one 
lying  a  little  more  forward  than  German  "ch"  in 
"ich".  In  some  parts  of  Sweden,  however,  the  spi- 
rant used  is  one  lying  between  the  sounds  of  "ch" 
in  German   "ich"   and  "Nachte". 

65.  Sj.  In  place  of  the  normal  .y'-sound,  Southern 
Sweden  employs  one  that  reminds  much  of  the 
sound  we  in  English  represent  by  "wh"  (when  this 
is  not  pronounced  like  "w"),  but  in  producing  the 
Swedish  sound  the  distance  between  the  tongue  and 
the  palate  is  smaller,  and  the  opening  of  the  lips 
larger.  The  Swedish  sound  is  articulated  just  a 
little  forward  of  the  "ch"  in  German  "ach",  and 
has  more  labialization  than  this. 

66-  L.  In  most  of  the  dialects  of  Central  and 
Northern  Sweden  a  peculiar  /-sound  (really  rather 
an  r-sound)  is  employed,  but  not  in  all  positions  of 
the  word.  The  sound  in  question  is  produced  by 
raising  the  tip  of  the  tongue  up  toward  the  palate 
and  turning  it  backward,  without  touching  any- 
where (about  as  in  the  case  of  our  American  cacu- 
minal "r",  but  with  more  tenseness  of  the  tongue); 
then  the  tongue  is  flapped  forward  into  its  normal 
position  in  the  mouth,  or  into  the  position  of  the 
following  sound  if  there  is  one,  the  tip  usually 
touching  the  rim  of  the  palatal  arch  in  passing. 
Ex.:  tal  speech,  gul  yellow,  valja  to  choose,  folk 
people,  bid  blue,   bubbla  bubble,  skramla  to  rattle. 


§  67        ALPHABET,  ORTHOGRAPHY  6l 

This  /,  which  is  called  cacuminal  /,  is  in  some 
parts  of  Sweden  usually  employed  also  in  place  of 
the  supradental  d  (written  rd)\  as,  bord  table,  hard 
hard,  garde  field.  But  it  is  used  less  often  in  the 
case  of  inflectional  forms,  such  as  gjorde,  gjord 
(from  gora  to  do). 

NAMES  OF  THE  LETTERS  OF  THE 
ALPHABET. 

G7-  The  names  of  the  letters  of  the  alphabet  are: 
a,  be,  se,  de,  e,  aff,  ge,  ha,  i,  ji  (or  Jodd),  hi,  all, 
amm,  dim,  o,  pe,  kit,  arr,  ass,  te,  u,  vc,  ve  (=zt'), 
aks,  y,  sata,   a,  a,  o. 

Note.  —  I.  The  sounds  represented  by  the  combinations 
sj,  tj,  tig  are  called  sje-ljudet,  tje-ljudet,  and  ang-ljudet,  re- 
spectively.    The  supradentals  are  called  supradcnta'lt  de,  etc. 

2.  The  vowels  in  the  vowel-names  are  long  (because  final) 
and  are  pronounced  with  the  vowel-quality  belonging  to  the 
long  sound  in  each  case;  e  and  o  have  their  normal  long 
quality,  that  described  in  §  20,  1,  and  §  22,  1.  Also  the 
consonant-names  are  pronounced  like  real  Swedish  words; 
the  quality  of  the  long  c  is  the  same  as  in  the  vowel-names; 
the  o  in  jodd  is  that  of  short  a.  The  g  of  ge  usually  has 
the  sound  of  "g"  in  "go." 

ORTHOGRAPHY. 

08.  Swedish  orthography,  while  far  from  perfect, 
is  not  nearly  so  confusing  as  English  orthography. 
On  the  whole,  Swedish  words  are  pronounced  as 
they  are  spelled.     There  are  very  few  silent  letters. 

In  the  course  of  centuries  the  pronunciation  of 
Swedish  has  changed  a  good  deal.     It    would    have 


62  ORTHOGRAPHY  §   68 

been  only  proper  for  the  orthography  tp^have  been 
changed  as  the  pronunciation  changed.  'Though  the 
Swedish  orthography  has  been  improved  from  time 
to  time\  the  changes  have  by  no  means  kept  pace 
with  ~tne  changing  pronunciation.  Another  very 
disturbing  element  is  the  borrowing  of  words  from 
other  languages;  in  these,  corresponding  sounds  are 
in  very  many  cases  represented  by  letters  and  com- 
binations different  from  those  that  Swedish  would/ 
use  for  those  sounds,  but  the  foreign  spelling  is 
usually  retained  in  Swedish. 

In  recent  years  there  have  been  several  important 
changes  in  orthography,  the  latest  being  that  of 
April  7,  1906.  The  literature  can  only  slowly  fol- 
low these  changes.  Comparatively  few  of  the  Swed- 
ish books  can  be  printed  anew  whenever  a  change 
is  officially  adopted,  and  while  most  new  books  that 
appear,  are  printed  with  the  latest  spelling,  yet  par- 
ticularly newspapers  and  periodicals,  for  commercial 
reasons,  generally  retain  the  older  form  of  ortho- 
graphy until  the  new  one  is  pretty  well  established 
among  all  classes. 

The  student  must  accordingly  be  prepared  to  meet 
several  stages  of  orthography  in  his  reading.  Even 
if  he  were  to  choose  only  books  with  the  newest 
spelling,  an  acquaintance  with  the  older  forms  of 
orthography  is  necessary  on  account  of  the  diction- 
aries. There  is  at  the  present  time  (August,  1914) 
no  Swedish-English  or  Swedish-Swedish  dictionary 
conforming  with  the  changes  adopted  in  1906,  while 
some  of  the  dictionaries  in  use  have  a  form  of  or- 
thography that  is  still  older. 


§  68  ORTHOGRAPHY  63 

The  orthography  used  for  a  number  of  years 
prior  to  1906  (employed  in  Wenstroin-Harlock's 
Swedish-English  dictionary)  differs  from  the  present 
orthography  (employed  in  this  book  and  in  my 
"Swedish  Grammar")  in  the  following  particulars: 
the  z/-sound  is  there  very  often  represented  by  f,fv, 
or  hv;  the  sound  of  tt  and  t  is  very  often  written  dt. 
In  detail: 

(1)  The  orthography  superceded  in  1906  employs: 
(a)  f  (pron.  v,  and  now  written  v)  in  native  words 
finally  and  when  followed  by  a  consonant;  as,  bref 
(now  brev)  letter,  kalf  (now  kalv)  calf,  ha/re  (now 
havre)  oats,  silfret  (now  silvret)  silver,  (b)  fv 
(pron.  v,  and  now  written  v)  medially  when  fol- 
lowed by  a  vowel;  as,  brefvet  (now  brevet)  the 
letter,  kalfven  (now  kalven)  the  calf,  silfver  (now 
silver')  silver,   hafva   (now  hava)   to  have. 

(2)  At  the  beginning  of  some  twenty-five  words, 
some  of  these  being  of  very  frequent  occurrence,  it 
employes  a  silent  h  before  v;  as,  hvad  (now  vad) 
what,  hvem  (now  vem )  who,  hvarje  (now  varje) 
every,  hviska  (now  viska)  to  whisper,  hvit  (now 
vit)  white. 

(3)  It  employs  dt  (pron.  //  or  t)  finally  and 
(less  often)  medially  in  certain  cases  where  //,  /  is 
now  used.  Except  for  a  few  individual  words,  it 
is  chiefly  a  question  of  cases  where  the  neuter  end- 
ing /  has  been  added  to  words  and  forms  ending  in 
d,  dd  (which,  by  assimilation,  have  become  voiceless, 
i.  e.,  /,  tt);  as,  godt  (now  gott;  f rom  god  good) , 
bebod't  (now  bebot't;  from  bebod'd  inhabited),  mildt 
(now  milt;  from  mild  mild),  byggdt  (now  byggt;  from 


64  ORTHOGRAPHY  §  68 

byggd,  past  part,  of  bygga  to  build),  ledt  (now  left; 
from  ledd,  past  part,  of  leda  to  lead),  sandt  (now 
siint;  from  sand,  past  part,  of  sanda  to  send),  «/- 
skadt  (now  alskat;  from  cilskad,  past  part,  of  £&&z 
to  love),  kandte'ra  (now  hante'ra)  to  handle,  landt- 
bmk  (now  lantbruk)  farming,  gladtig  (now  g/dttig) 
cheerful. 

A  form  of  orthography  in  use  prior  to  that  just 
described  (employed  in  Bjorkman's  and  in  Oman's 
Swedish-English  dictionaries)  differs  from  the  pres- 
ent orthography  chiefly  in  the  following  additional 
particulars: 

(i)  It  has  e  (pron.  a  )  in  many  instances  where 
the  later  forms  have  a;  as,  prest  (now  prast)  clergy- 
man, sjette  (now  sjdttc)  sixth.  The  present  form  of 
orthography  still  has  e  (=  a)  in  many  words;  see 
§  28. 

(2)  In  some  cases,  similarly,  it  has  0  (pron.  a) 
for  the  later  a;  as,  fogel  (now  fdgcl)  bird.  The 
present  form  of  orthography  still  has  0  (=  a)  in 
many  words;  see  §   28. 

(3)  It  has  qv  for  the  later  kv;  as,  qvall  (now 
kvall)  evening. 

(4)  It  has  gt  (pron.  kt,  by  assimilation)  for  the 
later  kt;  as,  slagt  (now  sliikf)  family,  vigt  (now 
vikf)  weight,  flygt  (now  flykt)  flight,  ansigte  (now 
ansikte)  fac^.  But  where  the  neuter  ending  /  is 
added  to  a  word  ending  in  g,  and  in  a  few  other 
cases,  the  spelling  gt  is  still  used;  note  the  cases 
mentioned  ii:  §  38,  particularly  those  in   the  note. 


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